*Law Deptt, GAD examining judgments of Apex Court
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Dec 26: Determined to take the process of removal of ‘dead-woods’ to its logical conclusion, the State Government has decided to challenge the orders of the High Court whereby forcible retirement of officers and officials was quashed. Moreover, the mechanism of writing Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of all the Government servants will be reviewed drastically to plug the lacunas, which became the ground for adverse orders from the High Court.
During the past one and half year, the State Government has terminated the services of a total of 84 officers and officials of different departments by declaring them as ‘dead-wood’. These steps aimed at cleansing the administration of incompetent, non-performing and corrupt officials were taken by the Government in exercise of powers conferred by Article 226(2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Regulations, 1956.
The first list of 63 officers and officials including those of the rank of Director General, Managing Director, Chief Engineer was issued vide Government Order No.870-GAD of 2015 dated June 30, 2015 on the directions of the then Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and the second list of 21 officers was issued last month on the recommendations of high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary and State Vigilance Organization (SVO) and after the approval of present Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
Out of 63 officers, who were shown the doors by the Government in the month of June last year, 28 were ordered to be reinstated by the State High Court by three different orders during the current month after quashing the orders whereby they were compulsorily retired from the Government service. More petitions challenging the compulsory retirement are going to be listed before the High Court in the coming days as these have already been filed by the ‘dead-woods’.
The common ground behind these quashment orders was that Annual Performance Reports (APRs) of these ‘dead-woods’ were not taken into consideration at all and all other relevant factors were not strictly followed by the Government while taking such a harsh decision.
However, determined to take the process of removal of ‘dead-woods’ to its logical conclusion, the State Government has now decided to challenge all these orders in the Division Bench of State High Court within shortest possible time so as to avoid implementation of Single Judge orders whereby one month time has been fixed for reinstatement of forcibly retired officers and officials, sources told EXCELSIOR.
“The Department of Law and General Administration Department are examining the judgments of the Apex Court on compulsory retirement of Government servants so as to make a strong ground for defending the decision and challenging the Single Bench orders”, sources informed, adding “the Department of Law is of the opinion that even if the APRs of these officers were having positive remarks the same cannot be the sole ground for quashment of orders pertaining to their forcible retirement”.
“There are judgments of the Apex Court which state that even public perception about the officers and interest of the Government can be made ground for taking such a harsh step”, sources said, adding “even under the procedure laid down for exercise of powers conferred under Article 226(2) of the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Services Regulations, 1956, consideration of APRs is only one of the points and not the singular point”.
Senior officers of the General Administration Department as well as Law Department, when contacted, confirmed that Government will go for appeal against the quashment orders of High Court. “Showing doors to the incompetent, non-performing and corrupt officers and officials is the policy decision of the Government and the same will be taken to its logical conclusion”, they further said, adding “if need arises the Government will go to Supreme Court also”.
About the Annual Performance Reports (APRs), whose non-examination became the ground for quashment orders, they said, “the observations of the High Court have made sufficient ground for holding deliberations on APRs writing mechanism”.
When contacted, Minister for Education and Government Spokesperson Naeem Akhtar confirmed that time has come to drastically review the APRs writing mechanism. “Government will surely take appropriate steps in this regard so as to plug the lacunas”, he added.
According to the sources, at present there is no institutional tracking of APRs of the Government servants and proper cadre control mechanism in any of the Government departments. “Due to this, the officers and officials are getting the APRs written from the competent authority by personally taking the relevant documents thereby reducing the chances of adverse remarks”, they added.
“Moreover, there is no practice of preparing the dossiers about the performance of the employees, enquiries they are facing, the penalties being imposed on them for non-performance and other departmental actions initiated against them which can be considered while declaring the employees as deadwoods”, sources said, adding “unless the whole issue is thoroughly debated upon by the Government and new guidelines are issued the process of obtaining favourable remarks in the APRs would continue”.
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