After telling the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) a mere eight months ago that Air Vice Marshall P K Ghosh could not become an Air Marshal since a vacancy did not exist, the MoD has given him the next rank, in spite of the status of vacancies remaining the same.

In promoting the officer, the MoD has willy-nilly admitted that wrong was being done to him. Both actions are inter-related and form part of an unprecedented series of events in the MoD and the courts, in connection with the promotion case of Air Vice Marshal P K Ghosh.

After months of being repeatedly exposed by the courts for misleading the Government, J K Dadoo, Director Personnel AIR-I in the MoD, has been moved to the resettlement side. This follows a string of actions in the promotion case, of now `supernumeraryAir Marshal' P K Ghosh, which repeatedly twisted facts before the ACC and led the Delhi High Court to summon Dadoo, the then Defence Secretary and an Under Secretary, in a criminal contempt of court case.

Even the division bench, comprising Justice Arun Kumar and Mukul Mudgal, observed that it is unfortunate that in the notes prepared for ACC, the correct picture was never projected.

The bench observed that the Cabinet should have been apprised of the judgment of the court containing a direction to consider the promotion of AVM Ghosh.