The Uttarakhand High Court has issued contempt notice to the Central Administrative Tribunal Chairman on whistle-blower bureaucrat Sanjeev Chaturvedi’s plea alleging non-compliance of the HC orders in a case related to downgrading of his appraisal report.
Mr. Chaturvedi, a Magsaysay award winner, said in his contempt petition that Chairman Justice L. Narasimha Reddy deliberately kept pending a transfer petition moved by AIIMS to shift the case from the Nainital Bench of the Tribunal to a Delhi Bench.
This, Mr. Chaturvedi said, was in violation of June 2017 and August 2018 orders of the High Court to the Tribunal’s Nainital Bench to decide his case within a period of six months.
The Uttarakhand HC Bench of Justice Sharad Kumar Sharma in its February 20 order had directed Justice Reddy to respond “as to why contempt proceedings may not be drawn against him and he may not be punished for wilful disobedience” of the court orders.
The HC has posted the case for further hearing after four weeks.
The present case stems from a petition filed by the Indian Forest Service officer of Uttarakhand cadre challenging poor grading in his appraisal report for the year 2015-16, when he was on deputation at AIIMS. Since the plea was in the nature of service matter, the Uttarakhand HC had asked the Tribunal to decide it.