NEW DELHI: The Telangana High Court on Tuesday set aside the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that had quashed the appointment of DRDO scientist Jaiteerth R Joshi as Director General of BrahMos Aerospace, ending the immediate legal challenge to the leadership of the Indo-Russian missile joint venture.
A division bench allowed petitions filed by the Union government and Joshi against the December order of the CAT’s Hyderabad bench, which had found “manifest arbitrariness” in the selection process, struck down his appointment, directed the authorities to reconsider the candidature of senior DRDO scientist Sivasubramaniam Nambi Naidu and ordered an interim arrangement to head BrahMos that excluded Joshi.
Joshi was appointed Director General of BrahMos Aerospace in November 2024 and took charge on December 1. Naidu, a Distinguished Scientist with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), subsequently challenged the appointment, arguing that he had been superseded despite being the senior-most eligible candidate.
The government and Joshi then moved the High Court, which in January suspended the operative portion of the CAT order, allowing Joshi to remain in the post while the challenge was heard.
The dispute centred on the weight to be given to seniority and scientific grade in selecting the head of a strategic defence joint venture, and the extent of discretion available to the competent authority to select a candidate on the basis of overall suitability.
The government had argued that the selection committee was empowered to identify the most suitable candidate and that seniority was not prescribed as an overriding criterion. It maintained that both Joshi and Naidu were shortlisted and assessed on parameters including technical expertise, leadership and managerial ability. Naidu, however, contended that his grade and longer service placed him in a superior position and questioned the manner in which the shortlisted candidates had been evaluated.
The ruling comes at a demanding juncture for BrahMos Aerospace, which is scaling up production amid rising domestic orders and a widening export pipeline. The company has delivered BrahMos systems to the Philippines and is pursuing potential deals with other countries.
It is also considering changes to its governance and engineering structure, including a proposal to separate the Chairman and Director General posts, build a dedicated in-house engineering team and remove the post of DRDO’s DG Missile and Strategic Systems from the board.
The supersonic missile has gained further operational prominence following Operation Sindoor, during which the air-launched missile was used in strikes against targets in Pakistan. A new production facility at Lucknow, inaugurated last year, is expected to add manufacturing capacity, with the Uttar Pradesh unit projected to produce 80 to 100 missiles a year in its initial phase.
