SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir high court on Friday quashed forced retirement order of 21 government officials, the ruling which is being seen here as a big jolt to the Mehbooba-led PDP-BJP government’s move to weed out what it had claimed was “deadwood” from the State administration.
In July this year, the government dismissed from service as many as 63 government officials after being called “deadwood” and in third week of October another 12 officials were sacked on charges of being involved in anti-national activities which include fuelling the post-Burhan Wani killing unrest in the State. Only a week ago, reports emanating from the corridors of power had said that action was being taken against more officials for their non-performance.
Justice Alok Aradhe of J&K High Court at its Jammu wing quashed 21 orders of State Government regarding compulsory retirement of engineers, Consumer and Public Distribution, Revenue employees, Kashmir Administrative Service officers and officers of the State Education Department.
As many as 25 petitions were listed, out of which 21 were heard at length and decided. The court quashed the government order regarding compulsory retirement order of all these employees. With the quashing of 21 orders, Justice Aradhe has decided 27 petitions in two days and quashed all the Government orders.
Most of these officials were on July night served sealed cover letters conveying their forced retirement from services. Next day, minister for education and chief spokesman of the PDP-BJP government at a hurriedly called press conference formally announced the government has “dispensed with the services of 63 civil servants as a part of the process to remove deadwood from the administration”.
He had claimed that out of these 63 officials , 25 involved trap cases by various anti-graft bodies, 11 included cases involving disproportionate assets and 27 were miscellaneous cases.
Mr. Akhtar had also said that the decision to dispense with the services of these officers/officials was taken by a high-level committee headed by the Chief Secretary.
The sacking of these officers/officials involved invoking of the existing clause of J&K Civil Services Rules (JKCSR), as per which the government has to assess the performance of an officer/official after he/she completes 48 years of age or 22 years of service.
Mr. Akhtar had further said that the through the action the government has just reiterated the essentiality of this clause and that performance review of the civil servants would be henceforth a permanent and regular feature in administration and the services of the officers/officials whose performance is not up to the mark or who have integrity issues would be dispensed with.” (sic) He had also said that this was a part of the larger process of infusing accountability and transparency in governance. End it
