The Nainital Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has directed the Central Government to take a decision on the pending representation of IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi in accordance with rules and guidelines governing the subject within a period of eight weeks.
The case was filed by the officer in February 2020 and judgment was reserved on May 26 this year. It was finally pronounced on September 1.
Chaturvedi, an officer of the 2002 batch of Indian Forest Service (IFS), had applied for Central Deputation in organization of Lokpal in the year 2019 which was forwarded by the Government of Uttarakhand, with no objection certificate or recommendations on December 23, 2019, and since then the application was pending with Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC).
Chaturvedi had earlier worked in the Government of Haryana and then as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS, Delhi where he had exposed many corruption cases. He was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award in July 2015 for his fight against corruption.
The tribunal in its judgment said, “We would like to record here that it has surprised us during the course of hearing that what we consider to be a simple matter on taking a decision on the request of the applicant, it has got unduly complicated and also degenerated into allegations and counter-allegations.”
The tribunal also reminded of their earlier direction in the matter passed in December 2021, in which it had directed the Central Government, “to display magnanimity and openness in this issue and take an expeditious and considered view in accordance of rules, on the request made by the officer seeking deputation on the office of Lokpal”.
Earlier in September 2020, the tribunal had passed an interim direction that NOC granted by the Government of Uttarakhand to the officer for Lokpal Deputation will not be disturbed till the conclusion of this case.
The Division Bench of Tribunal said, “Being an officer of the Indian Forest Service, which is an All India Service the Applicant is entitled to seek such a deputation in the Central Government or any other autonomous organization of the Government. The order further observed that the Central Government, being public authority is obliged to decide the same.”
