‘Draft redrawn KAS seniority list bereft of rationality’
*Say gross injustice done with them once again
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Aug 25: Stating that latest draft redrawn seniority list is bereft of any logic or rationality, officers of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Service (KAS) 1999 batch have sought resolving of issue strictly as per the judgment of Single Bench of High Court delivered in 2013 or through a committee comprising officers of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India.
Moreover, they have requested the Government of J&K Union Territory not to order any transfer on the basis of draft redrawn seniority list as the same will amount to doing grave injustice with them.
In a representation submitted to the Commissioner Secretary to Government, General Administration Department, these officers said that the seniority list of the KAS officers appointed against vacancies from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2008 has been issued at three occasions based on same set of rules but ironically the position of the officers has completely changed in every list.
“The latest draft redrawn seniority list issued on August 5, 2020 is bereft of any logic or rationality”, sources in the General Administration Department said while quoting the representation submitted by the aggrieved officers of 1999 batch, adding “the Government has not granted the benefit to the affected officers, which is a case of gross injustice”.
Stating that seniority amongst the inducted officers has to be determined exclusively on the basis of Rule 16 of 1979 Rules, they said, “the recently constituted committee has applied only Sub-Rule 3 in isolation and has ignored Sub-Rule 2 which protects the seniority of an officer in the feeding service at the time of induction into KAS”, adding “the Sub-Rule 3 is applicable only in case of departmental promotees and cannot and was never used to decide the seniority of complete batch of direct recruits”.
Further quoting the representation, sources said, “it has been mentioned that the seniority of officers has been framed in violation of rules to hit the officers of Jammu division who had been placed at the tail end of draft redrawn seniority list for the reason of being younger in age but being better in slot and merit position”.
They have conveyed to the Government that non-application of Sub-Rule has resulted in a strange catastrophe where a person who remained senior to another person in the feeding service for almost a decade has become junior to the other person only on the pretext that the latter is older in age than the former.
“Forty nine officers who have no slots even in the year 2008 and were inducted through one time dispensation by the Government by utilizing leave reserve/deputation reserve post and who were not benefitted by application of Rule 15(4) of 2008 Rules have been placed ahead of officers who had vacancies available for their induction up to the year 2007”, the aggrieved officers further said.
Another group of officers had been granted placements of higher post before the induction on pick and choose basis by the General Administration Department and the committee taking recourse to Supreme Court judgment (applicable to the dispute between promotees and direct recruits of linear services like Engineering Department) in Suraj Prakash case, has granted seniority to these officers from the date of placement. “This is not covered by KAS Rules of 1979 which cover 18 different feeding services”, the representation said.
It has also brought to the notice of the Government that the committee has tried to placate bypassing the rule position the group of 49 officers and the select group of 10 officers who were granted officiating placement to higher post and who had gone to the court to uphold the correct seniority issued in 2010 against the seniority list of year the 2011.
“This has been done without considering the adverse impact it has caused to the young officers mostly belonging to the Jammu division who had better slots in their feeding services and had higher merit but were younger in age”, sources further said quoting the representation.
They have requested the Government that either the judgment of Single Bench of J&K High Court passed in the year 2013 should be made basis for resolving the dispute or at least a committee involving senior officers of Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India be constituted to look into the issue and arrive at fair solution strictly as per 1979 KAS Rules that too in a time bound manner.
“Before this exercise is completed no transfers be ordered on the basis of so-called draft redrawn seniority list”, the representation said.
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