CAT’s Hyderabad bench quashes BrahMos DG Jaiteerth R Joshi’s appointment

The decision came on a plea by Sivasubramaniam Nambi Naidu, a Distinguished Scientist (DS), with DRDO, who was one of the three shortlisted for the position.

The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Monday quashed the appointment of Jaiteerth R Joshi as Director General of the Indo-Russian venture BrahMos.

Setting aside the November 25, 2024, order appointing him, a bench of Judicial Member Lata Baswaraj Patne and Administrative Member Varun Sindhu Kul Kaumudi, said “there is manifest arbitrariness in the decision of the respondents (Centre, Chairman DRDO and others) in appointing” him to the post.

The Tribunal said that “no doubt, as per the SOP (Standard Operating Procedure)…, the Secretary DDR&D (Directorate of Defence Research and Development) and Chairman DRDO can approve one of the names in the panel submitted by the Selection Committee for appointment to the position of Director General. However, it does not mean that the said authority can ignore the entire service record of the other scientists included in the panel”.

It said, “the SOP also provides that, in exceptional circumstances, the Secretary DDR&D and Chairman DRDO may exercise his discretionary powers for the said appointment. But, in the instant case, no such exception has been shown to appoint the 5th respondent (Joshi) ignoring the candidature of the applicant. As held by the Hon’ble High Court of Andhra Pradesh (Govt of Andhra Pradesh v. P Gautam Kumar, IPS, 2012)…absolute discretion of power of an authority is inconsistent with the principles of Constitutional governance.”

The order said Naidu “had completed a 6-year residency period by 2023 as Outstanding Scientist, having been appointed as Scientist (Grade) ‘H’ (this being one of the qualitative requirements for appointment as DG) in August 2017. Whereas, the 5th respondent did not complete the said residency period as Outstanding Scientist, as he was appointed as Scientist ‘H’ in July 2023… we are surprised to note that the 5th respondent with only about one year experience as Scientist ‘H’ has been appointed to the post of DG Brahmos.”

The Tribunal noted that “though both the 5th respondent and the applicant have got equal marks of 80, the candidature of the applicant, being a Distinguished Scientist, would put him on a higher pedestal and we fail to understand how the 5th respondent, who is not eligible to become a Distinguished Scientist, has been preferred.