Gujarat HC dismisses ex-IPS officer Kuldip Sharma’s petition on appraisal

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat High Court today dismissed a petition filed by retired IPS officer and Congress member Kuldip Sharma challenging his 2010 annual appraisal report, saying since he was no longer in service it was only an “academic exercise”.

The judgement was delivered by a division bench of Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy and Justice V M Pancholi.

The report, prepared by the then agriculture minister Dilip Sanghani and accepted by Chief Minister Narendra Modi, downgraded Sharma’s performance as Managing Director of Gujarat Sheep and Wool Development Corporation.

The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had dismissed his petition on the issue, holding that there was nothing wrong with the process of preparation of appraisal report.

After this, Sharma had moved the HC. Three judges– Justices Harsha Devani, A S Dave and S R Brahmbhatt– had recused themselves from the case before it landed in the court of the Chief Justice and Justice Pancholi.

Sharma’s contention was that Sanghani was not the competent authority who could evaluate his performance because he had not worked under the minister for the minimum period of 90 days, as required. While he had worked for 87 days, he was on leave for rest of the total of 142 days he served at the Corporation, Sharma said.

The government, however, insisted that Sharma had worked for 102 days at the Corporation.

PTI