Additional Chief Secretary (home) Rajeev Arora. (File) An IG-level IPS officer of Haryana has alleged that he was “constrained” to cancel his visit to his hometown in Telangana after state Additional Chief Secretary (home) Rajeev Arora did not “proceed his application for Earned Leave in time”. On the other hand, a government official said that “Earned Leave is not right of an official but a privilege adding its discretion of the government whether to grant the leave or not keeping in view the available circumstances”.
Earlier, IGP Y Puran Kumar had written to Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal on February 14 informing him how he was “constrained” to cancel his visit to Secunderabad (Telangana). According to Kumar, on January 19, he had applied for Earned Leave along with Station Leave from February 5 to February 13 to attend some personal work. The officer further claimed that the leave was sanctioned on February 11 and was communicated to him on February 12 “thereby defeating the very purpose for which the said leave was taken due to which I had to cancel the scheduled visit to my hometown”.
Subsequently, the IPS officer decided not to avail the said leave. On February 11, Kumar had written to the Chief Secretary to seek disciplinary action against Arora for “not proceeding his Earned Leave application in time” and seeking “appropriate damages/costs for causing undue harassment to him”. The IPS officer also stated that he had to visit his hometown after over one and a half year.
On the behalf of the state government, the ACS home on February 11 issued a letter to inform Kumar about ex-post facto sanction to his request for Earned Leave apart from four days leave (in November 2021) on medical ground. “The Governor of Haryana is pleased to ex-post facto sanction of commuted leave of 4 days from 15.11.2021 to 19.11.2021 on medical ground along with 05 days earned leave from 07.02.2022 to 11.02.2022 (with prefix for 05/06.02.2022 and suffix from 12/13.02.2022) to Sh. Y. Puran Kumar, IG,” read the order.
Arora was not available for comments but a government official, while defending the ACS home, claimed the Earned Leave in case of IPS officers is sanctioned by the minister concerned or Chief Minister. The official further said: “The competent authority has to see whether request of an officer for any kind of leave including Earned Leave has to be accepted or not. The competent authority has to see various factors including requirements and availability of the officials at a point of time. This needs to be understood by the officer concerned too. Currently, no other IPS officer has filed such complaint.” Y Puran Kumar is currently posted as IG of Haryana Armed Police (HAP), Madhuban (Karnal).
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