New Delhi, May 12: In a major boost to Government staff, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that it was mandatory for the authorities to disclose all contents of the annual confidential report (ACR) to the employee concerned.

A bench of Justices H K Sema and Markandeya Katju rejected the Centre's argument that it was under an obligation only to disclose the "adverse remarks" against an employee.

"We do not agree. In our opinion every entry must be communicated to the employee concerned so that he may have an opportunity of making a representation against it if he is aggrieved," the apex court observed in a judgement while upholding the appeal filed by Dev Dutt, who has since retired.

Significantly, the apex court said that it was developing a "new principles of natural justice" by passing the direction.

"In the present case, we are developing the principles of natural justice by holding that fairness and transparency in public administration requires that all entries (whether poor, fair, average, good or very good) in the annual confidential report of a public servant, whether in civil, judicial, police or any other State services (except in military), must be communicated to him within a reasonable period," the bench said.