NEW DELHI, MAY 12: In a major boost to government staff, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that it was mandatory for authorities to disclose all contents of an annual confidential report (ACR) to their employees, whether these marked their performance as “poor, fair, average good or very good”.

Developing a “new principle of natural justice”, the Bench comprising Justices H K Sema and Markandeya Katju said: “In our opinion, the non-communication of an entry in the ACR of a public servant is arbitrary because it deprives the concerned employee from making a representation against it and praying for its upgradation.”

The ACR, the court said, must be disclosed within a reasonable period of time.

Disagreeing with the arguments by the Union Government that it was under an obligation only to disclose the “adverse remarks” against an employee, the court said: “In our opinion, every entry in the Annual Confidential Report of every employee under the State, whether he is in civil, judicial, police or other service (except the military), must be communicated to him.”

So far, as per an office memorandum issued by the Government in 1987, only an adverse entry was communicated to the concerned employee.

According to the court, disclosure of all entries would “enable him (a public servant) to make a representation against it, because non-communication deprives the employee of the opportunity of making a representation against it, which may affect his chances of being promoted (or getting some other benefits).”

“Moreover, the object of writing the confidential report and making entries in them is to give an opportunity to a public servant to improve his performance,” felt Justice Katju, who authored the judgment.

The court’s order came on an appeal filed by an employee of the Border Roads Engineering Service, Dev Dutt, who has since retired.

After being promoted as Executive Engineer, Dutt was considered for the next promotion of Superintending Engineer. However, the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) held that he was not eligible, and instead his juniors were promoted to the rank.

Dutt first appealed to the high court, but his petition was dismissed.

However, the apex court noted: “In the present case, we are developing principles of natural justice by holding that fairness and transparency in public administration require that all entries (whether poor, fair, average, good or very good) in the ACR of a public servant must be communicated to him within a reasonable period.”

The court also held that “the non-communication of the ‘good’ entry (as in Dutt’s case) was arbitrary and hence illegal”.