Appointment of Capt’s chief principal secy: HC seeks original record

CHANDIGARH:The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday summoned original record pertaining to appointment of retired IAS officer Suresh Kumar as chief principal secretary to chief minister Amarinder Singh.

The order was passed by bench of justice Rajan Gupta during the resumed hearing of a petition by Mohali resident Ramandeep Singh who had challenged the appointment.

Earlier, the Punjab government had defended the move to appoint Arora stating that it was a contractual job and state was well within its power to appoint him.

Former solicitor general Ranjit Kumar appeared for the state government.

Additional solicitor general, Satya Pal Jain, appearing for the Centre said the issue does not warrant interference by the central government. “It is neither a cadre post nor an ex-cadre post. The appointment is not covered under the civil services rules,” Jain said.

The petitioner submitted that appointment is against the constitutional scheme and accepted norms. The court was told that tenure of Kumar has been made co-terminus with that of the government. He has been delegated the powers to oversee functioning of principal secretary to the chief minister which is a cadre post. Thus, a public office has been usurped by a retired IAS officer. This apart, there is no provision in the rules for bestowing rank of a cabinet secretary on a retired officer, the court was told by the petitioner.

Kumar was appointed in the rank of cabinet secretary of Government of India on March 17, a day after Amarinder took over as the CM.

A postgraduate in commerce from Delhi University, Kumar is a 1983-batch IAS officer. He started his career as a SDM in Talwandi Sabo and retired as additional chief secretary (development) in April 2016. Kumar served the Punjab government and remained on central deputation in different capacities.