Need to insert a custom node edit link in the node template I've removed the tabs 'view and edit' from the node content type display.
I need to provide a custom link to edit the particular node based on user permissions. 
I've used node/%/edit in node tpl but it does'n't work. Can someone help me with the proper method to achieve this
In your node.tpl.php you have access to current node object $node and you can get the node id.
You can check permissions for current logged user with user_access function

So you can do the next thing in your node.tpl.php

&lt;?php 
      if (user_access('your_permission_here')){
       //create link for current node edit
       echo l(t('Edit this node'), 'node/' . $node-&gt;nid . '/edit');
      }
?&gt;