The Madras High Court has directed the Chief Secretary, Government of Puducherry, Secretary, Confidential and Cabinet department and Principle Secretary, finance department to file separate affidavits on a public interest litigation seeking to quash the appointment of retired IAS officer G Theva Needhi Das as officer on special duty to Puducherry L-G Kiran Bedi.
Madras High Court
Chennai:
The Division Bench Comprising Justice S. Manikumar and Justice PT Asha while observing as to how the confidential reports, documents demi official letters such as note files with the signatures of Chief Secretary and the officials of Puducherry Government have been obtained by the petitioner, directed the above authorities to file separate affidavits setting forth the details whether any application was made under RTI by the petitioner. The bench then posted the matter for further hearing to October 12.
The matter relates to the recent appointment of former Secretary to Lt Governor Secretary to Lt Governor as Officer on Special Duty following his retirement for two years from July 01, 2018 at a contractual fee of Rs. 1.16 Lakh per month.
The petitioner P. Saravanan had contended that the Chief Minister of Puducherry had written a letter to Governor to name the successor of the said Das, scheduled to retire on June 30, 2018.
However, to his shock and surprise, the confidential and cabinet department on June 26, 2018 on marking a copy to the Chief Minister issued a letter of proposal and pursuant to which Das’s offer of engagement was given and he was appointed as officer on Special Duty to Governor. Stating that the engagement of Das as officer on Special Duty is illegal for the simple reason that a memorandum dated 11.09.2014 of Government of Puducherry speaks about the formulation of uniform procedure and guidelines for the engagement of retired Government officials as consultants in Government departments, the petitioner said that in the present case even prior to his retirement on attaining the age of superannuation he had put his signature as an employer with the Lt Governor.
Noting that the procedure for appointment of retired Government officials as consultants shall be based on submission of a proposal before the consultancy evaluation committee, the petitioner said that in the present case the procedure is totally violated and no such post as “Officer on Special Duty to Lt. Governor” is available and hence liable to be quashed.