Father-in-law manipulated official rules for the career of a nuclear submarine specialist officer to promote his son-in-law, a military court reprimanded the Navy for allowing such nepotism and slapped a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the vice admiral who did this.
Officer Commander SS Luthra was one of the 11 specialist officers trained in Russia for handling nuclear submarine reactors of INS Arihant and INS Chakra.
Luthra, in his plea, had alleged that Chatterjee was the senior reviewing officer (SRO) for officers serving in both INS Chakra and INS Arihant from 2010-12 as the inspector-general, nuclear safety – the officer in-charge for securing nuclear submarines and secret projects of the force.
It was alleged that Chatterjee manipulated the naval system in such a way that he has been either reviewing officer or senior reviewing officer for his own son-in-law on various occasions.
Due to this, other officers who were being considered for the same promotion board as his son-in-law stood at a disadvantage, the petition alleged.
Chatterjee retired from the Navy last year after commanding the Andaman and Nicobar Command and serving as deputy chief of the force.
The AFT took a strong view against the Navy’s inactiveness in allowing the nepotism to grow to say, “It is disturbing and surprising that the Indian Navy does not have an inbuilt system to ensure such probable occurrence between relatives are addressed institutionally, so that such a situation, as occurred in this case, does not manifest.”
The AFT “struck down” entries made by Chatterjee in Luthra’s service record and asked the Navy to reconsider him for promotion to the rank of captain from the date when he was due to be considered for elevation.
The court said though Luthra has, of his own volition, already proceeded on premature retirement (PMR) and if he is approved for promotion, the officer will be granted his rank from the original date of his batch and will be entitled to full pension and all terminal benefits in his enhanced rank.
Post Your Comments