In Brief
Captain Pramod Kumar Bajaj, a senior Income Tax officer selected as Member of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal in 2014, was compulsorily retired in September 2019 with three months left until superannuation. The Court held the retirement order invalid as punitive rather than based on public interest. Despite an impeccable 30-year service record with consistent "Outstanding" grades and "Beyond Doubt" integrity ratings, the government issued the order to circumvent pending disciplinary proceedings. The Court emphasised that compulsory retirement must be genuinely bona fide, based on valid material, and not used as a shortcut to avoid proper departmental procedures or cast aspersions on conduct.
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