DEHRADUN: Nainital bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has issued notices to the central as well as the state government to respond in the matter of deputation of Magsaysay award winning 2002 batch Indian Forest Service officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi in invstigation wing of Lokpal.
"Let counter reply on behalf of both the respondents (central and state government) be filed within six weeks," said the order by the tribunal dated August 4, 2020.
Next hearing of the matter has been scheduled on August 27, 2020. The matter was heard by the tribunal through video conferencing.
The notices were issued on August 4, 2020 while hearing a petition of the IFS officer requesting to 'restrain' the central government 'from exercising any undue influence' on the state government for altering their earlier decision expressed vide letter dated December 23, 2019 (issued in view of fulfilment of statutory requirements regarding completion of cooling off period, and position of Central Deputation Reserve), as had been attempted earlier in case of inter-cadre transfer/ inter-cadre deputation.
CAT is the body which decides on services matter of all India services such as IAS, IPS, IFS and others.
Notably, state government of Uttarakhand where he is posted as chief conservator of forests, a rank akin to joint secretary in the center has already granted NOC in December last year.
At present Chaturvedi is posted as chief conservator of forests in research wing of Uttarakhand forest department in Haldwani city.
Last year, in November, the whistle blower officer who has garnered reputation of no nonsense corruption crusader wrote to the center requesting to allow him to serve in investigation wing of the Lokpal.
The officer filed a petition in CAT in February 2020 requesting the tribunal to direct the center not to reject the case of his deputation of which has been on any ulterior/subjective/oblique consideration, and decide the same objectively, on merit, facts and in accordance with law only.
The former chief vigilance officer of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi in his petition stated that in earlier cases of deputation also, once the NOC was issued by Uttarakhand state government, there were malicious attempts to force the withdrawal of NOC, which was repeatedly set aside by Hon'ble Tribunal. However, it is learnt that again same tactics is being attempted, said the petitioner.
Asserting that corruption is scourge of nation and root cause of all the ills affecting the country, the petition said that blocking realization of its full potential and while the institution of Lokpal formally came into being in march 2019 after an untiring and relentless struggle of masses, in past one year institution of the Lokpal has not been able to punish a single corrupt official, mainly because of large number of vacancies.
As per information available on the website of Lokpal and in public domain, against 70 sanctioned posts, only 20 are filled and remaining 50 are vacant, many All India Services and Group A Central Service officer have been posted in Lokpal, in almost one year since its formation even form for filing the complaint has not been finalized and there has been more than one thousand complaints but as per one RTI application put into public domain, inquiry has not been initiated even into any case, the official said in the petition.
The petition stated that the IFS has a proven track record in the field of vigilance/anti-corruption which had been substantiated as well as appreciated in the orders passed by various constitutional authorities including President, Prime Minister, Supreme Court and various other Tribunals/ Courts as well as being invited by all the prestigious national academies as resource person on the subject of anticorruption.
"On the other hand, Secretary and other functionaries appointed by Respondent Central Government on deputation basis, to assist Lokpal, have no such track record of working in any anti-corruption assignment, as per information available in public domain," the petition added.
Further, describing his credentials, the petition stated that the IFS officer, having successfully completed 17 years of service, timely availing all the promotions by dint of hard work and being promoted to rank equivalent to joint secretary in central government, having vigilance clearance, outstanding service record which includes appreciation/validation of his performance by all the constitutional authorities including President of India, Prime Minister of India, various High Court/Tribunals, even IB report and the Applicant being conferred prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for his tireless effort against corruption of high & mighty, having completed cooling off period and having already worked in central government during which he not only received outstanding appraisal reports but was also appreciated by the highest functionaries of the concerned ministry, the applicant has a legitimate expectation of being considered for the said deputation, in a fair and impartial manner, without any previous burden of animosity.
The petition further stated that to deprive the official without any valid reason, in view of huge number of vacancies into investigation wing, ignoring the previous experience of applicant, in the area of anticorruption/vigilance, would be completely arbitrary and hence violative of fundamental right of equality under Article 14 of the Constitution of India, mentioned that a record number of four orders were issued in favour of applicant favour of by/on behalf of the President of India, from year 2008 to 2014 which is a record for any All India Service officer, in the history of independent India.
The grading of APAR (Annual Performance Appraisal Report) for financial years 2010-11 and 2011-12, was declared as OUTSTANDING vide Presidential orderd dated January 31, 2014, the petition added.