A RETIRED lieutenant colonel of Indian origin yesterday claimed he had been the victim of racist comments in a confidential Army appraisal of his skills.

A report written by his commanding officer said Dr Surinder Saggar had "the ready smile and the wit one has come to recognise in a person from the Subcontinent".

The officer, who had served as a consultant anaesthetist, was medically discharged after enduring a nightmarish posting overseas as head of anaesthesiology at the Princes Mary Hospital in Akrotiri, Cyprus, the hearing was told.

In a landmark tribunal, he is claiming racial discrimination by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) at the end of his 20-year career.

The Kenyan-born Army medic, of Brompton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire, told the hearing in Newcastle that the confidential report, written in 1999 by RAF officer Group Captain John Jones, left him "very upset".

He said: "It was subjective and heavily based on personal prejudices.

"The pen portrait not only described my ethnic origins but provided stereotypical remarks which I found hurtful and racist."

The pen portrait followed an assessment of Dr Saggar's capacities, which Gp Capt Jones rated as either "good" or "very good".

It said in full: "Of medium height and build, Lt Col Saggar is normally a happy individual, with the ready smile and the wit one has come to recognise in a person from the Subcontinent."

The portrait also said he was over 60 and had signed up to complete another two years' service as there was a shortage of anaesthetists, and was therefore not eligible for promotion.

Dr Saggar told the tribunal he had a number of problems with other members of the anaesthetics department in Akrotiri, from 1998.

He said he felt he was losing his clinical confidence after disputes with colleagues about on-call rotas, and told the tribunal he was not backed up by his superiors.

He said: "I had become convinced that there was no explanation for all of this, other than a reason relating to my race."

The veteran of the first Gulf War joined the Army in 1982 after working for the NHS in hospitals in Hull and York, gaining promotions along the way.

Dr Saggar took the MoD to a tribunal and lost, then failed with an appeal.

He took the case to the Court of Appeal last year, and in a landmark judgement, it was ruled that the initial tribunal had applied "too narrow a legal test".

The hearing continues.