Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 16: The High Court has allowed the Indian Air Force (IAF) officer to leave the force in order to join the Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services with the condition to deposit Rs. 3 lakhs with the IAF.
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The petitioner-Himmat Kumar Raina of Doda had challenged an order dated 01.11.2019 issued by IAF whereby his request seeking his discharge from the IAF was rejected.
Raina had also sought a direction upon the authorities to release him from the IAF by issuing necessary discharge certificate so as to enable him to continue in J&K Administrative Service.
Justice Sanjay Dhar keeping in view of the good conduct of the petitioner and having regard to the fact that he has potential to attain great heights in his career said that denying him permission to continue his service as an Officer of the J&K Administrative Service would work very harshly against him and in fact would discourage and dishearten him immensely, that would lead to wastage of a great talent.
The court, however, observed that Raina can’t be allowed to go scot free as he has clearly been guilty of breach of conditions of his service in the IAF. Therefore, appropriate conditions need to be attached for permitting the petitioner to seek discharge and continue his service as an officer of the J&K Administrative Service.
“For the foregoing discussion, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the respondents-authorities to issue NOC and discharge certificate in favour of the petitioner-Raina subject to deposition of Rs 3 lakh with the Air Force within two months. “In case, any amount is due to the petitioner from the Air Force, the aforesaid amount shall be set off against the dues”, read the judgment.
In 2016, Raina, was denied permission by the IAF to appear in the J&K Combined service exams. It appears that despite this, the petitioner proceeded to sit in the examination and qualified the same.
Raina submitted an application in 2019 seeking his discharge from the IAF. It seems that the said application was returned to the petitioner without forwarding the same to the Commanding Officer because he had been selected to a Group ‘B’ and not Group ‘A’ post.
In the meantime, the petitioner came to be appointed as an Officer in the Junior Scale of J&K Administrative Service vide Government order No. 1015-GAD of 2019 dated 13-09- 2019 and he was asked to join the service within 21 days of the issuance of the said order.
The petitioner, however, did not receive the discharge order and in the meanwhile his request for extension in joining the fresh service was refused by concerned authority.
The petitioner, therefore, proceeded to join the service on 01.10.2019 and continues to serve as an Officer of J&K Administrative Service.
On 01.11.2019, impugned order came to be issued by IAF authorities whereby the petitioner was informed that his request for discharge has not been approved and that the same has been rejected by the competent authority.
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