CAT stays Haryana CS's order on Khemka's LTC

A bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here has stayed Haryana Chief Secretary's order that cancelled a Leave Travel Concession (LTC) that had been sanctioned for senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka's mother.
A division bench of the CAT comprising Judicial Member Sanjeev Kumar Kaushik and Administrative Member Uday Kumar Varma passed the stay order while hearing an application filed by Khemka yesterday.
The bench also issued a notice to the Chief Secretary and the Union Government through Secretary, Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), for January 20, 2017, seeking their reply on the contentions raised by Khemka.
The bureaucrat challenged the Chief Secretary's orders passed on June 1 and November 29, withdrawing the earlier sanction of LTC of Rs 12,397 in favour of his mother for visiting his hometown, Kolkata, for the sub-block 2014-15 from December 12, 2013, to April 30, 2013.

The Chief Secretary had asked Khemka to deposit the amount of LTC reimbursed within a month.
Khemka, who had argued himself before CAT, submitted that the Chief Secretary had failed to recognize the provision of Rule 18 of the CCS (LTC) Rules, which allowed for the government to relax rules in case of undue hardship in any particular case and did not apply its mind and consider the medical and health grounds for advancing the date of outward journey by 20 days.

He contended that the Chief Secretary's order violated the principles of natural justice as no opportunity of representation was given when the order was passed against him.

"The CS (Chief Secretary) order runs against the well-established principles of administrative law," he said.
While applying for LTC, Khemka had sought a relaxation to prepone the date of commencement of the outward journey to December 12, 2013, on the ground of hardship caused due to his mother's health, as being old she could not tolerate the severe winters of the north.
She was under the treatment at PGIMER, Chandigarh, for life-threatening ailments and the harsh winter of Chandigarh was detrimental to her deteriorating medical condition, Khemka submitted.
On October 14, 2013, the Chief Secretary allowed relaxation to prepone the outward journey by 20 days as requested by the applicant.

The LTC was reimbursed on April 21, 2014. However, on June 1, 2016, the Chief Secretary passed an order directing Khemka to deposit the amount of LTC reimbursed within one month, on the ground that the earlier LTC sanction order was against the provisions of the AIS (LTC) Rules.
"The order of present Chief Secretary is arbitrary ... it's harassment to me... Should the government do like this," Khemka told PTI today adding that Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar is working under the "control" of bureaucrats.
Khemka was repeatedly transferred and also investigated after he cancelled a controversial land deal involving Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra during the previous Congress regime in the state.

Khemka was persecuted by the then Congress government after he cancelled the sale of 3.5 acres of land in Gurgaon near Delhi by Vadra's company to real estate giant DLF for Rs 58 crore in 2012.