The Central Administrative Tribunal has approved pre-mature repatriation of Shailesh Singh, an IPS officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, from the Directore General of Foreign Trade to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the cadre-controlling authority, ruling that this did not cast any stigma on his career.

Singh was posted as a zonal joint director of DGFT in Mumbai in March 2008. Soon he faced a barrage of complaints, which he alleged were motivated as his streamlining of functioning of the department adversely affected many. Six months later, he was repatriated to MHA though his term of deputation was for five years. He approached CAT saying this premature repatriation cast a stigma on his career.

The CAT, which initially stayed the repatriation, allowed it commenting that it could not be termed stigmatic. The final order came from CAT member Dr Ramesh Chandra Panda.

Concurring with the judgement, CAT chairman V K Bali explained in some detail why the repatriation could not be considered stigmatic. He wrote: "I may only add that an employee when entrusted with a particular job, may excel, whereas the same person when entrusted with another job, may not carry out the functions and duties to the satisfaction of the employer.

"The Applicant is indeed a meritorious employee and appears to have excelled also. It, however, further appears that while holding the deputation post of ZJDGFT he could not come up to the terms and requirements of the job. 

"There is no adverse comment made by the authorities while repatriating him that may touch upon his integrity and honesty. 

"The comments, if at all, pertain to his unsatisfactory performance on the particular job assigned to him, i.e. the duties that he was to carry out while holding the post of ZJDGFT on deputation.

"If the applicant (Singh) did not come to the expectations of the employer while carrying out a particular job, it cannot be termed as stigmatic; it is at the most an accident of service."