Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das has written a letter to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) requesting it to refuse to take cognizance of the proceedings issued by the State Election Commission (SEC) against the two IAS officers who were censured by the Commission. The Chief Secretary also wanted the DoPT to advise the SEC not to exercise power which is not in his domain and adhere to the guidelines in the matter.
Mr. Das, in the letter, said that the SEC had administered the censure against Panchayat Raj & Rural Development Principal Secretary Gopal Krishna Dwivedi and Commissioner of Panchayat Raj M. Girija Shankar without following the due procedure prescribed under AIS (D&A) Rules, 1969. The allegation was not updating the Gram Panchayat electoral rolls as on January 1, 2021. The SEC had written a very derogatory letter against the officers to the Secretary, DoPT, for their compulsory retirement. “This step of SEC also doesn’t fall under his competence and suffers from jurisdictional error,” he said.
The Chief Secretary, referring to the guidelines and cases filed in the Supreme Court, said that the Election Commission was empowered to suspend any officer / police personnel working under the Central government or public sector undertaking or an autonomous body fully or partially funded by the government, for insubordination or dereliction of duty besides making recommendations to the competent authority for taking disciplinary action, while engaged in the preparation of electoral rolls or election duty. “The disciplinary proceedings against the All India Service Officers have to be dealt with under AIS (D&A) Rules, 1969,” he said.
Mr. Das asserted that censure was a penalty classified under minor penalties and the State government was the competent authority. “The proceedings issued by the SEC administering censure against the two IAS officers and to direct that the same will form part of their service record is without competency and jurisdiction and nothing but transgressing into the powers vested with the State government. Accordingly, the government has rejected the censure proceedings of the SEC,” he added.
