HC expunges Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar's remarks on Ashok Khemka

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court upheld the plea of senior bureaucrat Ashok Khemka and expunged adverse remarks made by Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar in the IAS officer’s annual confidential appraisal report for 2016-17.

Khattar made these remarks notwithstanding the superlative grading by Anil Vij, Haryana sports and youth affairs minister, Khemka’s reviewing authority during that period. The CM’s remarks could have cost Khemka his next promotion — additional secretary in the central government.

Vij rated Khemka 9.92 out of 10 for “overall grading on attributes” and said that “Ashok Khemka has shown excellent achievement under severe constraints”. Vij added that Khemka “is very innovative and has immense potential which can be utilised better by the government”. The appraisal pertains to the period between April 8, 2016 and March 31, 2017.

Khattar, in his capacity as the CM and appraisal accepting authority, rated the 1991 batch IAS officer 9 out of 10, which, too, is outstanding. However, he wrote that Vij’s report on Khemka was exaggerated and that the reviewing authority, or the officer himself, had not specified any constraint.

Setting aside Khattar’s remarks, the HC division bench, comprising Justices Rajiv Sharma and Kuldip Singh, observed: “A person of such professional integrity needs to be protected as professional integrity in our political, social, and administrative system is depleting very fast... The remarks recorded by the accepting authority (Khattar) are liable to be expunged.”

Khattar’s remarks and his grading of 9 for Khemka were both set aside by the HC and the division bench clarified that the opinion and grading of 9.92 given by Vij, reviewing authority of Khemka, would prevail upon the grading given by the reporting authority.

Despite the outstanding rating of 9/ 10, Khattar’s remarks would have ensured Khemka was not considered for elevation to the next level. Only 20% from a batch of IAS officers are considered for the higher scale of additional secretary and Khemka may have lost out on this chance owing to these remarks.