The Central Government, through the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), has made a notable policy reversal on the contentious 360-degree appraisal system for civil servants. This shift emerged in a legal matter involving Uttarakhand cadre Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, heard before the Nainital Circuit Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
In its latest affidavit, the DoPT has asserted that the guidelines for the 360-degree appraisal—referred to as Multi-Source Feedback (MSF)—are governed by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC). The department maintains that these guidelines are "not in public domain and cannot be disclosed to the public at large," although they could be presented to the Tribunal in a sealed cover for private inspection.
This position represents a sharp departure from the DoPT's earlier affidavit filed before the same Tribunal in October 2023. In that document, related to the same officer, the DoPT had declared that "no such system is there in Government of India and hence no records of it exist." This statement was made in direct response to Chaturvedi's application requesting production of the 360-degree appraisal records.
The government's new emphasis on confidentiality contradicts prior public disclosures about the system.
Notably, in 2017, the then-Secretary of the DoPT appeared before a Parliamentary Committee and provided detailed evidence on the system's introduction, implementation, and the specific attributes evaluated under the 360-degree appraisal.
Additionally, the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice examined the MSF mechanism in depth in its 92nd Report. The Committee described the system as "opaque, non-transparent and subjective," cautioning that its reliance on informal feedback rendered it vulnerable to manipulation and bias, ultimately deeming it "not legally tenable".
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These inconsistent positions from the DoPT have influenced the Tribunal's proceedings. Following the department's October 2023 assertion that no such records existed, the CAT dismissed the request for the guidelines as redundant in its May 2024 order, relying on the government's clear denial.
Yet, in a later hearing in May 2025 addressing Chaturvedi's empanelment issues, the DoPT's counsel adopted a different approach, invoking clauses from the MSF guidelines to support the non-disclosure of documents pertaining to the officer's empanelment.
In response to this reference, the Tribunal directed the DoPT to submit the relevant appraisal guidelines. The department has since sought to have the Tribunal withdraw its prior directive requiring the guidelines to be placed on record.
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