The court has asked for a reply by the centre on the matter. (Representational)
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre and others to file a reply on the plea challenging the Army's promotion policy formulated in 2017. The policy says that officers holding the rank of Major General from the Intelligence Corps are specifically held to be ineligible for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General for Non-General Cadre Staff Stream vacancies (NGCSS).
A division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Navin Chawla asked the Centre, Chief of Army Staff and Military Secretary to file their reply on the petition.
The petition was filed by Major General SS Khara through advocates Neela Gokhale, Kushal Choudhary. The petitioner, a Major General, holds the designation of Additional Directorate General (ADG) of Military Intelligence (B) in the Indian Army.
He has challenged the promotion policy formulated by the respondents dated December 23, 2017, whereby the officers holding the rank of Major General from the Intelligence Corps are specifically held to be ineligible for consideration for promotion to the rank of Lieutenant General for Non-General Cadre Staff Stream vacancies (NGCSS).
The petitioner said that he is being aggrieved by the "arbitrary and unreasonable policy of the respondents". He submitted that the Intelligence Corps is categorised as an arm in the Indian Army, along with other officers and troops of all other arms namely Infantry, Mechanised Infantry, Armoured, Artillery, Signals, Engineers, Army Air Defence, Army Aviation, and others.