New Delhi: The plea filed by whistleblower Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi challenging the Centre’s 360-degree appraisal system for officers at the joint secretary level and above, and the recruitment of private professionals into government through lateral entry, once again failed to make any progress, as a member of the Nainital bench of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) recused himself from hearing the plea, citing that his ‘relative counsels’ might have appeared for respondents in the matter.
Prior to this, in January this year, L. Narasimha Reddy, the chairman of CAT, which adjudicates service-related matters of government employees, had recused himself from hearing a plea by Chaturvedi in the matter and transferred the case to another court. Incidentally, Reddy did so after allowing a petition by the Centre in December 2020 seeking transfer of Chaturvedi’s case from the tribunal’s Nainital bench to New Delhi, saying “the matters of this nature have their own impact on the very functioning of the central government”.
Following Reddy’s recusal from the case, which challenged the civil servants’ empanelment process, Chaturvedi’s counsel and senior advocate Sudershan Goel had stated that CAT chief ought not to have passed the order of transfer when he was in one-to-one litigation with the applicant. Earlier, in March 2019, the CAT chief had recused himself from hearing Chaturvedi’s three other petitions citing some “unfortunate developments” and other reasons.
And now in its order, the Nainital bench of CAT, comprising R.N. Singh and A.K. Bishnoi, said, on March 11, “One of us (Mr R.N. Singh, members (J)) remembers that he has not been counsel for any of the parties in the matter(s) referred to above, however, from the orders under reference, it transpires that his relative counsels, practising from their chamber have counsel for some respondents in these matters and he might have appeared for them and/or with them.”
With Singh recusing himself from the case, thus, Goel questioned the move, saying: “Excuse taken by concerned judge Mr R.N. Singh that his name was recorded in judicial orders, for appearing in cases against Sanjiv Chaturvedi just because he went in court with his relative counsels, is not appropriate. His appearance is recorded on at least four occasions – 29.5.2015, 3.5.2016, 2.6.2016 and 3.6.2016 and even in final orders.”
It is pertinent to note that the case filed by Chaturvedi, who is now working as the chief conservator of forest at Haldwani, Uttarakhand, has not been able to make much progress due to one reason or the other.
The whistleblower officer – who during his tenure as director vigilance at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, from 2012 and 2016 had investigated around 200 corruption cases – was honoured with the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2015 for exposing corruption in public offices.
He had filed the case against the Centre’s appraisal system after nine private sector specialists were appointed as joint secretaries in different central government departments in August 2019 through the “lateral entry” mode, following their selection by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Earlier, the posts of joint secretaries usually went to officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), the Indian Police Service (IPS), the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) and the IFS who were selected into services through a three-phased selection process undertaken by the UPSC.
Chaturvedi challenged the lateral entry system, citing an August 2017 report by a parliamentary committee which stated that the 360-degree appraisal system, also known as the multi-source feedback system for civil servants, was flawed.
In his plea, Chaturvedi also quoted from documents obtained by him through a Right to Information (RTI) application and contended that the “contract system is completely arbitrary and irrational”.