PM-led panel's order against whistle-blower quashed

Central Administrative Tribunal says Cabinet appointment panel's order against Sanjiv Chaturvedi unjustified

Orders of the two-member appointments committee of the Cabinet (ACC), headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, against whistle-blower officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi have been struck down by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The orders were without justification and against the principles of natural justice, the tribunal said.

Quashing the ACC’s orders, the tribunal on Wednesday ordered the committee to decide on Chaturvedi’s plea for change of cadre in a time-bound manner, based on the large set of evidence the officer had produced of harassment and threat in his parent cadre state, Haryana.

Prima facie, the tribunal found Chaturvedi had gone through extreme hardship for blowing the lids off several scams but the ACC had ignored these facts while deciding on his plea for change of cadre. The tribunal noted, “There is very little scope for the ACC to decline the approval (to Chaturvedi’s cadre change). However, no reasons have been assigned by the ACC for this decision, thereby violating the rules of natural justice.”

Quoting Rabindranath Tagore’s famous lines, “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high...into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake,” CAT ordered: “We do hope and trust that the situation may never arise that honesty is punished and corruption awarded. Such a system cannot be expected to last a long time.

“We hope the respondents (the Union government) have taken note of the points raised by the applicant...regarding extreme hardship and relentless persecution merely because of carrying out the duties assigned to him under law.”

The ACC is at present a two-member body comprising the prime minister and the home minister; the home minister is permitted to accept the decision of the committee post facto. CAT is a judicial body that decides on matters pertaining to All India Service officers such as those from the administrative, police and forest services.

The ACC had overruled Haryana, Uttarakhand and the environment ministry’s recommendation that Chaturvedi be transferred to the hill state after he pleaded for such a transfer, citing the threats and extreme hardships he faced in Haryana. Instead of deciding the matter conclusively, as required by regulations, the ACC kept the decision pending for months, after which it brought the matter back to square one by asking Haryana and Uttarakhand to review their consent. It did this by claiming the political dispensation in the two states had changed and, therefore, the state governments should review their decision, a reason it had cited in other similar cases. Also, the ACC turned the proposal for a permanent cadre change into one of temporary deputation to Uttarakhand without the officer seeking deputation. An officer’s request in this regard is mandatory.

It was recorded that the government counsel did not defend the ACC’s decision on the merits of the case; the National Democratic Alliance government would take a re-look at the case, it was said.

Chaturvedi, a Haryana cadre officer on deputation to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), has sought a permanent cadre change to Uttarakhand. The present NDA government had removed him from the post of anti-corruption officer at AIIMS after J P Nadda (then only a parliamentarian and now Union health minister) sought suspension of all investigations Chaturvedi was carrying out into corruption at the institute.

When Aam Aadmi Party chief and current Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal sought Chaturvedi be sent to Delhi on deputation as his officer on special duty, the process was held up for months.

Following a PIL at the Supreme Court, the Chief Vigilance Commissioner revealed many cases of investigation into corruption at AIIMS have been stuck since Nadda took charge as Union health minister.

Chaturvedi had approached the CAT, seeking quashing of ACC’s orders, which had taken his plea of cadre change back to square one, despite all mandatory clearances being secured. In its order, CAT said, “The instances of harassment cited appear to be on an extreme side and deserve to be taken serious note of (while deciding conclusively on Chaturvedi’s cadre change).”

It cited four presidential orders in favour of Chaturvedi — CVC’s recommendation to protect the officer; the Central Bureau of Investigation’s recommendation to investigate some of the scams he had blown the lid off; an indictment of several Haryana officials and politicians in corruption and harassment of the officer by a Union government investigation; and false criminal and vigilance cases against the officer.

Asking the ACC to take a final decision, preferably in two months, it said Chaturvedi was at liberty “to approach the tribunal again in case the order of the competent authority (the ACC) does not match up to his satisfaction and expectations.”