The Nagpur-based Maintenance Command is going to have to cope with three Air Marshals when the government sanction is only for two in every command. And all this is the result of the MoD giving a ``supernumerary'' promotion to Air Marshal PK Ghosh to tide over the crisis created by the contempt of court case in the Delhi High Court. The promotion has created a 22nd Air Marshal, for which the service has no vacancy or job. Air Marshal S Raghavan, whose promotion by the MoD despite objections regarding branch-based vacancies by Air Headquarters led to the snowballing of the crisis in the courts, is tipped to be moved to Nagpur as Air Officer Logistics &Maintenance (AOL&M). The incumbent, Air Vice Marshal Vohra is believed to be coming to Air Hqs, MoD sources said. ``And now we will have three Air Marshals at Nagpur. This is an unheard off situation,'' the sources said.

The Maintenance Command is headed by Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Air Marshal SS Gupta. His number two at the command headquarters, the Senior Maintenance Staff Officer Air Marshal Janaki Raman makes up the second, and last, three-star post. But now there is going to be yet another three-star officer in the command with Air Marshal Raghavan slated to take over as the Air Officer Logistics and Maintenance. While the post has thus far been held by an Air Vice Marshal, since that is the sanctioned rank, it will now have an Air Marshal holding it, sources said.

AVM Vohra, the current incumbent, will come to Air Hqs in place of Air Marshal Raghavan as Assistant Chief of Air Staff (logistics). ``Both are Air Vice Marshal-level posts but with the promotion of Raghavan there had to be anupgradation. Air Hqs was compelled to absorb him somewhere as there was no vacancy for him as an Air Marshal,'' the sources said. The genesis of this sorry situation in the Air Force, the sources said, goes back to December 1996 when Air Marshal Gupta was moving to Nagpur and a vacancy emerging at Air Hqs for an engineering branch officer.

Then Air Vice Marshal Raghavan went to the court in October 1997 for his next rank. Following a note from MoD, the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) promoted him on October 20, 1997. The MoD had all along held the position that the promotion was based on ``oral orders'' and ``oral directions'' of the court on October 17, 1997. Ajit Kumar, the former Defence Secretary who apologised to the Delhi High Court yesterday, admitted that the note to the ACC was ``on account of a genuine misconception''.

``While Ajit Kumar was the secretary, the then additional secretary handling Air Force matters was a brother-in-law of Raghavan. By promoting him, when there was novacancy for an Air Marshal in his logistics branch, they denied Air Vice Marshal Ghosh his next rank even when there was a vacancy in the engineering branch,'' the sources said.