*Huge number of involved officers remain unpunished
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 22: Instead of playing role in cleansing the administration of corrupt elements, several departments of the State Government have been playing hide and seek with the State High Court on completion of 147 departmental enquiries as no tangible results have come to the fore till date despite expiry of several deadlines fixed by the General Administration Department. Even the General Administration Department has preferred to indulge in jugglery of words before the Division Bench of the High Court despite having all the powers to grill the officers, who are responsible for inordinate delay in the completion of such enquiries.
In pursuance to directions of the High Court in Public Interest Litigation (PIL) titled Sheikh Mohd Shafi and Another Versus Union of India and Others dated May 13, 2015, the General Administration Department convened a meeting on June 22 to review the status of 147 departmental enquiries and accordingly directions were passed to the Administrative Secretaries of the concerned departments to complete such enquiries within a period of one month—by July 22.
Moreover, the Administrative Secretaries were directed to intimate the names of the alleged accused, present place of posting, date of initiation of enquiry, stage of inquiry and reasons for delay within a week’s time positively. Even directions were issued for issuing show cause notice(s) to the Inquiry Officer for dereliction of duties.
This was also conveyed to the Division Bench of State High Court on July 21 through a status report when the PIL was listed. The Division Bench, while noting that one month’s time granted to the departments for furnishing the requisite details had already lapsed, expressed desire to see as to how the various administrative departments responded to the GAD’s directives issued in meeting dated June 22 and the details of the action taken by the departments.
Accordingly, the Division Bench of the High Court vide order dated July 21, directed the General Administration Department to file a detailed status report within a period of four weeks reflecting the steps taken by the various departments pursuant to the instructions and decisions taken by the GAD.
Now, the General Administration Department, in pursuant to the High Court’s directions dated July 21, has submitted a status report. However, no tangible results have been shown in the report thereby indicating that departments have still been playing hide and seek with the High Court instead of becoming a tool for cleansing the administration of the corrupt elements.
The non-cooperation from the departments concerned can be gauged from the status report, which states: “it is expected that all the departmental enquiries must have reached some logical conclusion. The number of enquiries keep on changing. If some enquiries are closed, new enquires get initiated”. This statement of the GAD is notwithstanding the fact that it had itself fixed one month’s time for completion of enquiries and the same period lapsed on July 19.
Even after lapse of one month beyond July 19, the General Administration Department instead of acting tough against the erring departments, states: “We are continuously following up this issue with the concerned departments so that enquiries initiated are completed with action taken against all those who are responsible for any act of omission or commission”.
At the same time, the GAD is seeking time of another six months to provide concrete information to the High Court on departmental enquiries, which it should have otherwise kept available in case it was continuously following the issue with the departments as claimed in the status report.
From the status report, it can easily be presumed that GAD is only indulging in jugglery of words instead of ensuring strict compliance to the directions of the High Court from the departments concerned. Due to failure of the GAD to get its directions as well as those of High Court strictly followed by the departments concerned, huge number of erring officers have remained unpunished during the past quite long time.
As far as making Accountability Commission functional is concerned, the status report states: “Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has already initiated the process of filling up of vacant positions in the Commission”. However, it has not specified any timeframe for the same.
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