The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has favoured direct recruitment to the post of senior vice president or vice president in the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) and not through promotion.

" When the government wants to appoint senior vice president or vice president, the method has to be direct recruitment,"the tribunal said, adding,"no element of promotion is envisaged in the said ( ITAT Recruitment and Conditions of Service rules, 1963) rules."

CAT Chairman V K Bali was hearing a plea by G E Veerabhadrappa, ITAT vice president, who had challenged the decision of selection committee not to consider him in the order of merit while filling up the post of vice president in 2004 despite him being the senior most person among candidates.

"Once, the words promotion and deputation are missing from the language employed in the Rules, it is a case of recruitment, the only method, as mentioned above, would be by way of selection,"the tribunal said.

It said the appointment, be it of Members, Senior Vice President, Vice President or President, is governed by a set of rules and the vacancies shall have to be filled as per procedure prescribed in it.

Earlier, the government termed the applicant&aposs plea as"misconceived"saying the selection committee could not have prepared the select list on the basis of comparative merit.