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Petitioner: A. R. SHARIF VS Respondent: PROVINCE OF THE PUNJABHonorable Justice S. ABDUL JABBAR KHAN
1984 P L C (C
1984 P L C (C. S.) 928
[Service Tribunal Punjab]
Present: S. Abdul Jabbar Khan Chaiman and Malik Zawwar Hussain, Member
A. R. SHARIF
versus
PROVINCE OF THE PUNJAB THROUGH ADDITIONAL CHIEF SECRETARY, SGA & I DEPARTMENT, LAHORE
Case No. 232/173 of 1983, decided on 17fb October, 1983.
(a) Civil service‑---
---‑ Annual Confidential Report‑Expunction of adverse remarks --Adverse remarks recorded by Reporting Officer containing serious allegations expunged by competent authority but those recorded by countersigning authority allowed to remain on dossier ‑ Such remarks relating to event of Polling Station and according to standing instructions these should have been positive and without any personal bias‑Adverse remarks expunged, in circum stances.
(b) Civil service‑
‑‑ Annual Confidential Report ‑ Instructions on writing of Confidential Reports‑Assessment of work of civil servant ‑ Held, should be positive without any personal bias and officer so making such observations be in a position to justify same if called upon to do so.
M. Aslam Virk for Appellant. Hasan Ali Shah, District Attorney for Respondent.
JUDGMENT
S. ABDUL JABBAR KHAN (CHAIRMAN).‑Appellant A. R. Sharif has filed an appeal under section 4 of the Punjab Service Tribunals Act, 1974 in which he has impleaded the Province of Punjab through Additional Chief Secretary, Services, General Administration and Information Department as respondent.
2. By virtue of this appeal he has prayed that the remarks "occasionally inclined to go off like a tangent" so upheld in his annual confidential report by the respondent be expunged. He has also claimed the cost of his appeal in this case.
3. Brief facts of the case are that the appellant joined, P. C. S. through competitive examination in 1968 and since then has served in various Districts of Punjab as a Magistrate 1st Class and Section 30. The last judicial appointment being Additional Deputy Commissioner at Gujranwala in N. P. S.‑18. During his tenure at Gujranwala he served under Mr. Muhammad Aslam Sukhera who was then Deputy Commissioner and was pleased to record adverse remarks for the period from, 1st January, 1980 to 30th June, 1980. On representation before the Additional Chief Secretary the adverse remarks given by Mr. Sukhera were expunged as unsustainable but the observation of the learner Commissioner was allowed to remain on the appellant's dossier. The appellant was conveyed this information vide S. G. A. & I. Department Confidential letter, dated 23rd April, 1983. Hence this appeal.
4. We have heard the learned counsel for the appellant and have also taken into consideration the arguments advanced by the representative of the Department as well by learned District Attorney and have carefully perused the record of this case including the A. C. Rs. of the appellant. The learned counsel has submitted that the adverse remarks given by Mr. Sukhera were highly vague in nature and the same have been expunged as even the Commissioner did not agree with the learned Deputy Commis sioner on the performance of the appellant particularly with regard to his integrity. The learned counsel has vehemently argued that the observation made by learned Commissioner that the appellant was inclined to go off like tangent was based (according to the Commissioner's own comments) relating to an event of polling station wherein the appellant instead of writing a short judgment wrote a lengthy judgment discussing point of law without any justification. It has been submitted that this incident was not relevant to the observation so made by the learned Commissioner as in each case it was always a personal assessment of a case which impels a judge to write a judgment in accordance with the fact as well as the law so involved in the said matter. The learned counsel read before me the dictionary meaning of word "tangent". It has been argued that the word pertains to a mathematical proposition and in no manner would have any bearing on a judgment so given in a polling affair. He has also referred to the unblemished service record of the appellant and has further submitted that the appellant is a great scholar of Arabic and Herbrew and is highly religious by temperament and such like vague remarks in his A. C. R. are likely to hurt his feelings. He informed the Tribunal that appellant is no more interested in service and is going to leave the country as he has been asked to chair a seat of leading in a foreign country.
5. We have consulted Chambers Twentieth Century Dictionary and find the "tangent" has been explained as an adjective meaning thereto attach without intersecting a line that touches a course; the limiting case of a scant when the two points of intersection coincide ; the ratio of the side of a right‑angled triangle opposite the given angle to the side opposite the other acute angle. The learned counsel for the appellant pointed out that the observation given by the learned Commissioner has no bearing in any manner, whatsoever on the subject to which he has offered his opinion while submitting the same to the Additional Chief Secretary on the representation of the appellant.
6. According to the standing orders laid down for recording of A. C. Rs. the assessment of a civil servant's work should be positive without any personal bias and the officer so making such observation be in a position to justify the same if called upon to do so. In view of above we are of the considered opinion that such like observation cannot be allowed to remain in A. C. R. of the appellant particularly when the main and serious allegations against the appellant made by the Deputy Commissioner have not been considered, of any significance by the countersigning authority i.e. Commissioner.
7. In view of above we accept the appeal set aside the impugned observation and direct the respondent to expunge this observation from the A. C. R. of the appellant.
However, there is no order as to costs.
M. Y. H. Appeal accepted.