Long pending seniority issue of KAS officers
*Report to be submitted by middle of next month
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Apr 26: Government panel has completed deliberations with the aggrieved officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service, commonly known as KAS, on the long pending seniority issue and noticed that grave injustice was done with them mainly because of indifferent attitude of those who remained at the helm of affairs in the General Administration Department during all these years.
Now, the committee will consolidate its view on the basis of the record and the instances of injustice brought to its notice and submit its report to the Government by the middle of next month for the resolution of issue once and for all.
The decision about examining the seniority issue afresh was taken after numerous representations were made by the delegations of the KAS officers to the Lieutenant Governor of J&K Union Territory Girish Chandra Murmu and the Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam in the recent past.
The mandate of the committee framed vide Government Order No.440 dated April 1, 2020 is to examine in detail the seniority issue of the members of the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service, appointed to the Time Scale with effect from January 1, 2004 to December 1, 2008 and work out the possible options for finalizing the seniority list on a normative basis.
The committee comprising of Hirdesh Kumar Singh, Chief Electoral Officer and the then Commissioner Secretary to the Government Education Department, Simrandeep Singh, Secretary to the Government, Department of Disaster Management, Relief, Rehabil-itation and Reconstruction, Dr Farooq Ahmad Lone, Secretary to the Government General Administration Department and Anchal Sethi, Secretary Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs has completed detailed deliberations with the aggrieved officers, who shared with the Government panel numerous instances of injustice done with them and the ‘criminal’ silence maintained over the issue by those who remained at the helm of affairs in the General Administration Department despite being aware of all the facts.
The delegations of aggrieved KAS officers, as per the sources, apprised the Government panel that seniority issue was earlier deliberated upon by Verghese Samuel and B B Vyas committees but the recommendations were never acted upon as a result of which the issue has remained unresolved till date.
During the deliberations, it came to the fore that the KAS Rules were first prepared in the year 1979 as per which 65% quota was fixed for induction into KAS from 18 different feeding services, 10% for lateral entry and 25% for junior KAS officers. However, these Rules were never implemented in letter and spirit mainly because of manipulations by those who were close to the politicians and top bureaucrats and were not entitled for immediate benefit of these Rules.
Pointing towards the fate of 1999 batch officers, sources said, “it is a grave injustice that even after the lapse of 21 years they have not been inducted into IAS although they were supposed to obtain this benefit in the year 2014”, adding “perhaps Jammu and Kashmir is the only UT (earlier State) in the country whose officers of 1999 batch have not been inducted into IAS”.
It was only because of manipulations by some influential officers that under the new Rules, which were framed in the year 2008, the ratio of 65:25:10 was abolished as a result of which fate of 1999 batch officers is still handing in balance, sources further said, adding “the most shocking aspect is that 25% of the 1999 batch officers will attain superannuation within next five years without being getting the benefit of induction into IAS”.
Moreover, several more batches of KAS are in the line for obtaining this benefit after completion of required period of service as every year officers get into feeding services either by way of direct recruitment or the promotion of the subordinate officers of these services, sources further said.
“The issue is not only of fixing seniority from 2004 to 2008 but settling the seniority from 1997 till 2008 as the seniority list issued in 2005 is also under challenge and subsequent batches of all feeding services from 1997 to 2008 whether they are direct recruit or promotees are entangled in the litigation”, they added.
They disclosed that the committee, which has come to the conclusion that grave injustice was done, will now consolidate its view on the basis of record and the instances brought to its notice by the aggrieved officers and submit its report to the Government by the middle of next month for the resolution of issue once and for all.
“The committee will adopt proactive approach so that there is no scope left for fresh litigations as already there are different orders from different courts on the seniority issue of the KAS officers”, sources further informed, adding “the KAS fraternity is anxiously waiting for the report of the committee and necessary action on the same from the Government especially in the light of the fact that such an exercise in the past failed to yield the desirable results”.
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