In short. A missing APAR does not mean the DPC marks you down or skips you. Under the DoPT guidelines the committee first looks at the years before the missing one, then at reports from your lower grade, and finally at whatever is available, after a No Report Certificate is put in your dossier. This guide is for central government employees whose APAR was never written for a year or more. Checking your file takes one to three weeks; if the DPC used the wrong substitute report, a representation comes first, and the Tribunal is open within the limitation period after that.
Is this your situation?
- One or more of your APARs was never written, and a DPC is due or has just met.
- You were on deputation, long leave, training or suspension for a year and nobody reported on you.
- Your reporting officer retired, was transferred out within weeks, or simply never filled in the form.
- You were declared unfit and suspect the committee used an old or lower-grade report in place of a missing one.
- The establishment section says your dossier is 'incomplete' and the DPC proposal is being held back.
- You want to know whether a No Report Certificate was placed on file for the empty year.
- Juniors were promoted while your case was 'kept pending for want of APARs'.
In short
- A missing APAR is replaced, not counted against you. The DPC must look at earlier years, then lower-grade reports, then all available reports, in that order.
- Every empty year needs a No Report Certificate. Ask for a copy; if there is none, the gap was never properly explained to the committee.
- The substitute report matters more than the missing one. Find out exactly which year's APAR the DPC used in its place and what grading it carried.
- Check before the DPC, not after. Gaps are far easier to fix while the proposal is still with the establishment section.
- A wrong substitution can be undone. A representation, then a review DPC or an application to the Tribunal, can put you back in line with your batch.
Why an APAR is never written in the first place
An APAR not written for a year is rarely anyone's deliberate act. The APAR instructions generally expect the reporting officer to have watched your work for at least three months in the year. If you changed postings twice, or your boss changed twice, there may be no single officer who saw you for long enough, and the year passes with nothing on file.
Deputation is the next big cause. When you work for a borrowing organisation, that office writes your APAR and is supposed to send it back to your parent cadre. Very often it sits in the borrowing body's records, or goes to the wrong section, and your cadre controlling authority never receives it. Long leave, study leave, training abroad and periods under suspension can also leave nothing to report on.
Then there are the human failures. A reporting officer retires or dies before writing, a reviewing officer leaves the report unreviewed, a file is lost during an office shift, or the online APAR on SPARROW or the departmental portal is never initiated. Sometimes the employee is part of the problem: the self-appraisal was not submitted in time, and the cycle simply stalled.
Whatever the reason, the effect at promotion time is the same. The DPC has fewer reports for you than for the officer next to you on the eligibility list, and it has to decide how to compare you fairly.
The rule a DPC follows when your APAR is missing
The DoPT Guidelines on Departmental Promotion Committees, issued as an OM of 15 March 2024 and compiled again later that year, deal with this in paragraph 4.4.4. Clause (a) says every officer considered by the same DPC should be assessed on APARs for an equal number of years. Clause (b) fixes which years: the five years preceding the T minus 2nd year, where T is the vacancy year. So for the 2027 vacancy year, the reckoning APARs are 2020-21 to 2024-25.
Clause (c) is the one that matters for a missing APAR at the DPC stage. Where one or more APARs have not been written for any reason during the relevant period, the DPC is to consider the APARs of the years preceding that period. If even those are not available, it takes the APARs of the lower grade to make up the required number. If that is also not possible, it considers all the available APARs.
Put simply, the committee reaches backwards. Your missing 2022-23 report may be replaced by your 2019-20 report, which would otherwise have fallen outside the window. If you were promoted recently and the earlier years belong to your feeder post's own feeder, the DPC may end up reading reports written when you held a lower grade.
Holding a DPC without APAR coverage for every year is allowed. Treating the empty year as a blank or a fail is not, because a gap is not a below-benchmark grading. If the minutes show you were found unfit because a year had 'no report', the committee has not followed its own guidelines. Our guide on how a DPC reads your last five APARs explains the benchmark and the overall assessment once the five reports are in place.
Which report fills the gap, in the order the guidelines set
| What is missing | What the DPC should look at | Where things usually go wrong |
|---|---|---|
| One year inside the five-year window | The previous year APAR just before the window, so the count stays at five | The section uses a later year that is outside the window, or simply counts four years |
| Two or three years inside the window | Further earlier years in the same grade, going back as far as needed | Older reports from a difficult period come back into play without anyone noticing |
| Earlier years in the same grade also missing | Reports from your lower grade, to complete the number | Lower-grade reports are read against the higher post's benchmark without comment |
| Too few reports even after going back | All available APARs, whatever their number | The DPC records 'unfit' instead of assessing on what it has |
| Report exists but sits with the borrowing office | Should be called for before the DPC meets | Treated as 'not written' when it was only 'not received' |
The No Report Certificate: what it is and why you want a copy
Paragraph 3.2.1 of the guidelines says a DPC proposal should normally go forward only with complete and up-to-date APARs. Where a report for a period is not available for valid reasons, a certificate (the guidelines call it a No Report Certificate; many offices call it a non-availability certificate) is to be recorded and placed in your APAR dossier. Where UPSC is associated with the DPC, the certificate is to be recorded by an officer not below the rank of Deputy Secretary. In other cases it is recorded by the officer of the administration section handling the proposal.
A proper certificate names the period, the reason the report is not available and who checked. 'APAR not available' with nothing more is weak. 'Officer on deputation to an autonomous body; APAR not received despite reminders of dates X and Y' tells the committee and later the Tribunal what happened, and it also tells you where the missing report may still be lying.
There is also a limited relaxation. Clause 3.2.1(i) lets a proposal move where at least 90 per cent of the reckonable APARs are available, but only where a large number of officers are being considered. It is a convenience for big cadres, not permission to ignore your gap.
If no certificate was recorded, it suggests the section never explained the gap to the committee at all. That is a useful point in a representation, and you can ask for a copy of your own dossier entries under the RTI route explained in our guide on filing RTI for DPC minutes and APARs.
When reaching back helps you, and when it hurts
The fallback rule is neutral on paper and anything but neutral in practice. If the missing year came from a quiet patch and your older reports are strong, the substitution changes nothing. If the missing year was the one where you were doing your best work, you lose its benefit and an older, weaker report takes its place.
The worst case is an old report below the benchmark that you had assumed was gone for good. Suppose your 2018-19 APAR was 'Good' when the promotion post needs 'Very Good'. Under the normal window it would not be read. Because two later years are missing, it comes back. Employees are often shocked to learn that a grading they forgot about decided their DPC.
Lower-grade reports bring their own trouble. The reporting officer in the lower grade was judging you against different duties. Some DPCs read those reports exactly like current ones; others give them less weight. The guidelines say only that they are used to complete the number, so the minutes should show how the committee treated them.
Any substitute report graded below the benchmark must have been communicated to you, with a chance to represent, before it can be used against you. That is the rule from Dev Dutt v. Union of India (2008) and Sukhdev Singh v. Union of India (2013). Reports from before 2008-09, when full disclosure began, are a frequent problem here, and our page on an APAR graded below benchmark and never shown to you covers that remedy.
Kept pending 'for want of APARs' while juniors move up
A different problem arises when the office does not fill the gap at all and instead holds back your name. The proposal goes to the DPC for everyone else, and your case is shown as 'deferred, APARs incomplete'. Juniors are promoted, and you are told your turn will come once the dossier is complete.
The guidelines do not support this as a routine practice. The whole point of paragraph 4.4.4(c) is to let the committee assess an officer whose reports are missing, using earlier or lower-grade reports. Deferring an eligible officer only because a report was not written shifts the department's own lapse onto you.
If this has happened, put it in writing quickly. Ask the competent authority to have your case assessed under the fallback rule and, if you are found fit, to place you in the panel at your proper seniority position above the juniors already promoted. Keep a copy of the deferment noting, if you can get it, because it records in the department's own words why you were left out.
There is one situation where deferment is legitimate: where you are under a cloud, such as a chargesheet or prosecution, and the sealed cover procedure applies. That is a separate regime, explained on our page about a DPC result kept in a sealed cover.
A deputation year that went missing
Here's a made-up example. Farida works as a Senior Translator in a defence accounts office in Pune. In 2021-22 and 2022-23 she was on deputation to a central autonomous institute in Hyderabad. The institute wrote her APARs, both 'Very Good', but sent them to its own personnel section instead of her parent office.
When the DPC met for the 2026 vacancy year, her dossier showed 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2023-24 in the window, with two blank years. The section went back and pulled in 2017-18 and 2018-19. The 2017-18 report, written by an officer she had once complained about, was only 'Average'. No No Report Certificate was recorded for the deputation years. She was found unfit and two juniors were promoted.
Farida asked for her dossier entries and the DPC minutes, then wrote to her Controller with copies of her deputation orders and the institute's reminder letters, pointing out that the reports existed and had only not been received. The office obtained them. Because the original DPC had used reports it should not have reached, the department convened a review DPC. Her case worked because she proved the reports were 'not received', not 'not written'. Had they truly never been written, the argument would have shifted to whether the 2017-18 grading was ever communicated.
What to do this week if you suspect a gap in your dossier
Do these in order. Each step creates a paper trail you may need later.
List your APAR years yourself
Write down every financial year from your joining in the present grade, with your posting, reporting officer and any deputation, leave or training. Mark any year where you do not remember receiving a disclosed APAR. This one page will save hours later.
Ask the section for your dossier position
Write to the establishment or vigilance-and-confidential section asking which reckoning APARs are on file for the coming vacancy year and whether any No Report Certificate has been recorded. Keep the request short and dated.
Chase reports that exist somewhere
If you were on deputation, write to the borrowing office asking it to forward your APARs to the parent cadre, and copy your own section. For a retired reporting officer, ask the section whether the report was initiated before he left.
Check the substitute years
Once you know which earlier or lower-grade reports will be used, read them. If any is below the benchmark and was never disclosed, raise it now in writing, before the committee meets.
After the DPC, get the minutes
If you are found unfit, ask for the minutes and your assessment sheet, through your section or RTI. Compare the years used with the T minus 2 window and the fallback order.
Represent through proper channel
Send a focused representation to the competent authority asking for a review DPC, attaching proof of the missing or misread reports. This is the remedy you exhaust under Section 20 before the Tribunal.
Never wait for the next DPC to fix this one. Each new committee builds on the last panel, and juniors once promoted are harder to displace.
Can a missing APAR be written now, years later?
Sometimes, but treat it with care. The APAR process has fixed timelines, and the DoPT OM of 9 April 2025 tightened them further: disclosure in September, a 15-day window to represent, and the whole cycle closed by 30 November. A report produced long after the year, especially one written just before a DPC, is open to question on both sides.
If the report would help you, a belated APAR from an officer who actually supervised you can be useful, but expect it to be examined closely. If it would hurt you, the delay itself is a strong objection. Tribunals tend to doubt adverse reports written years later by an officer who had left, because memory fades and there is no contemporaneous record.
A better route for most people is to establish what the rules already provide: that the year was genuinely unreported, that a certificate should exist, and which substitute reports the committee was entitled to use. You are then arguing about the DPC's procedure, which is on paper, rather than about someone's opinion of your work five years ago.
Papers to gather before you write anything
About the missing years
- Posting and transfer orders showing who your reporting officer was
- Deputation order, joining and relieving reports, and the borrowing office's address
- Leave sanction orders, training nominations or suspension and revocation orders
- Any letter you sent asking for your APAR to be written or forwarded
About the DPC
- Eligibility list and the order promoting your juniors
- DPC minutes and your assessment sheet, if already obtained
- Copy of any No Report Certificate in your dossier
- The recruitment rules for the promotion post
About your own reports
- All APARs disclosed to you, with grading and date of disclosure
- Your self-appraisals and any representation against a grading
- Any order upgrading or expunging a grading
- Earlier lower-grade reports, if the DPC may reach back to them
Group C, railway, postal and defence civilian staff
The fallback rule in paragraph 4.4.4 is DoPT's, and most ministries apply it as written for Group A, B and C promotions alike. For a large Group C cadre, such as Upper Division Clerks moving to Assistant posts in a big directorate, the 90 per cent relaxation is more likely to be used, which makes it even more important to check whether your gap was among those passed over.
Railway staff work under Railway Board instructions on confidential reports and promotions, which broadly follow the same pattern but are issued separately. Check the relevant Railway Board letter for your grade before relying on DoPT paragraph numbers. Postal staff moving up through departmental examinations face a different problem: the exam result drives the promotion and APARs come in mainly for fitness, so a missing report matters less, but it can still delay a posting order.
Defence civilians, including ordnance and MES staff, often have reports written in units that later close or merge, and dossiers go missing in the move. Scientists in ISRO, DRDO and CSIR are assessed under their own promotion schemes, where an assessment board may weigh APARs differently. If your service has its own rules, the general principle still holds: a gap must be explained and filled by a known method, not used as a reason to pass you over.
Missing reports and MACP screening
The MACP screening committee looks at APARs too, and offices commonly borrow the DPC approach for missing years. The benchmark for MACP has been 'Very Good' since 25 July 2016, so an old 'Good' report pulled in to fill a gap can sink an upgradation in the same way it sinks a promotion.
If your upgradation was refused and you suspect a missing year was the cause, the steps above still apply. Our guide on MACP refused for APAR grading looks at the benchmark question in more detail.
Where you can challenge the DPC, and how soon
A DPC that misread your dossier is challenged before the Central Administrative Tribunal if you hold a central civil post, or work in a body brought under the Tribunal by notification under Section 14(2) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985. The Original Application under Section 19 goes to the bench covering your place of posting or the place where the order was made. A Section Officer in a Delhi ministry would file at the Principal Bench; a postal assistant in Siliguri at the Kolkata Bench.
Time is counted under Section 21. Once your representation is rejected, a year starts running. If nobody answers it, wait six months and the year then runs from that point. Reminders sent in between do not buy extra time, a point the Supreme Court settled in S.S. Rathore. An application filed after the year needs a separate prayer for condonation, with dates and reasons that hold together.
Not everyone goes to CAT. Personnel of the CAPFs, and staff of PSUs and banks, ordinarily approach the High Court by writ, and state government employees go to their State Administrative Tribunal where there is one. Whichever forum it is, the juniors promoted on the faulty panel must be made parties, since any relief for you moves them. Our page on being left out by the DPC while juniors were promoted shows how such an application is put together.
Time and cost at each stage
| Stage | Usual time | Cost in general terms |
|---|---|---|
| Finding out what is in your dossier | 1 to 3 weeks through your section; about 30 days under RTI | Nil, or the RTI fee |
| Getting a deputation APAR sent back | A few weeks to several months, depending on the borrowing office | Nil |
| Representation for review DPC | Decision often takes 2 to 6 months; you may approach CAT after 6 months | Nil |
| Review DPC if conceded | Usually 2 to 6 months after the decision | Nil |
| Original Application before CAT | Many such cases take 1 to 3 years; some are decided sooner | A small fixed fee (Rs 50 under Rule 7 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules; check the current figure) plus copying and paper costs; counsel's fee is agreed separately |
| Writ in High Court against the CAT order | Varies widely by court | Court fee and costs as per that High Court's rules |
Mistakes that make a gap worse
- Assuming the department will notice. The establishment section sees hundreds of dossiers. If you do not point out a gap, it will be filled by whatever report comes to hand.
- Arguing about grading when the problem is procedure. Complaining that the missing year 'would have been Outstanding' gets nowhere. Showing that the wrong substitute year was used often does.
- Writing directly to the minister or the Secretary. Go through proper channel to the authority competent to order a review DPC. Bypassing it can be treated as misconduct and delays the reply.
- Leaving out the deputation office. If the report exists there, a letter from you to that office is often faster than any internal reminder.
- Missing the limitation date while waiting. Waiting for a promised review DPC that never comes is the most common way people lose a good case.
Two practical tips from Advocate B.K. Singh
First, Advocate B.K. Singh asks every client with a dossier gap for the same thing before anything else: the exact list of years the DPC actually used, year by year, with the grading against each. Without it, people argue in the dark. With it, you can usually see within minutes whether the committee followed the fallback order or simply picked whatever was on file.
Second, he advises clients who are going on deputation, long leave or training to write one short letter before they leave, telling their own section who will report on them and where the report should be sent. It costs nothing, and years later it is the document that proves the gap was not of their making. If you are already back, write that letter now for any report still outstanding.
Getting your dossier looked at
A gap in your APARs is often fixable without litigation if it is caught early. If the DPC has already met, the question becomes whether the committee followed paragraph 4.4.4 and whether a review DPC should be asked for. Where juniors have already joined, our page on challenging a DPC that passed you over explains the next step. Before you start, the 15-day window to represent against a disclosed APAR is worth reading, because the same discipline applies to substitute reports.
If you would like your dossier, DPC minutes or representation checked, or want to hear when the DPC guidelines change, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.
Frequently asked questions
My APAR for one year was never written. Will I be declared unfit?
No. A missing year is not a failing grade. The DPC replaces it with an earlier report, or a lower-grade report, or assesses you on what is available, and the reason for the gap should be recorded in a No Report Certificate.
Which APAR does the DPC use instead of the missing one?
It first goes to the years before the five-year reckoning window. If those are also missing, it uses reports from your lower grade, and if that is still not enough, all available APARs. Ask for the minutes to see which year was actually used.
Who signs the non-availability certificate for a missing APAR?
Where UPSC is involved in the DPC, an officer not below Deputy Secretary records it. In other DPCs the officer of the administration section handling the proposal records it. It should state the period and the reason.
My deputation office never sent my APAR. What should I do?
Write to the borrowing office asking it to forward the report to your parent cadre, and send a copy to your own establishment section. If a DPC has already met without it, ask for a review DPC once the report is received.
Can an old below-benchmark APAR be used against me to fill a gap?
Only if it was communicated to you with a chance to represent. If an old report graded below the benchmark was never shown to you, it should not be used to your disadvantage, and you can ask for it to be ignored or for a chance to represent now.
Can my department write a missing APAR now, before the DPC?
It sometimes happens, but a report written years later is open to question, particularly if it is adverse. It is usually safer to rely on the fallback rule and insist it is applied correctly.
Does a missing APAR affect MACP?
It can. Screening committees for MACP generally follow the same approach of using earlier reports, and since the MACP benchmark is Very Good, an older Good report used as a substitute can lead to refusal.
How long do I have to go to CAT after a wrong DPC decision?
Generally a year, counted from the order rejecting your representation. If the representation is never answered, the year starts once six months have gone by. A late application can still be filed, but only with a condonation request that explains the delay honestly.
Advocate B.K. Singh
Founder of B.K. Singh & Associates. MCA, LL.B., LL.M. More than twenty years in practice before the Supreme Court, the Delhi High Court and other High Courts, the Central Administrative Tribunal and other tribunals. This guide was written and reviewed by his team.
This guide explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice on your own papers, contact the team.
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