HC orders shooter Vishwajeet’s appointment as HCS officer

Court decries the role of IAS officer Ashok Khemka, but said it is not passing any adverse order

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed Haryana government to appoint international shooter Vishwajeet Singh as Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officer, who is the son of IAS officer Jagdeep Singh. The court decried the role of IAS officer Ashok Khemka, whose complaint in December 2019 on his selection led to delay in the appointment. Singh was declared successful under the sports category in December 2019. However, when appointment letter was not issued till September 2020, he approached the high court. Now, the court has directed that appointment letter be issued within four weeks.

It has come before the high court that Ashok Khemka made a complaint on December 27, 2019, to the chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission and the chief secretary, alleging that the selection was unfair. He had also questioned the ‘A-grade’ certificate issued by his (Viashwajeet’s) father, who was the Haryana sports director at that time. The allegations were also that father of the petitioner manipulated the medal at an event in Germany which led to Singh becoming eligible for certificate.

The court found that Singh was entitled to get ‘Grade A’ certificate as per the policy of the state government, which came into being when Khemka was helming the sports department in Haryana. The court also found that various sports agencies at state, national and international-level had responded to communications in Singh’s favour. The court also did not agree with the argument that coaches recommending his certificate had written in protest and observed that it appeared some words were inserted afterwards.

On Khemka’s role, the court said that it is not passing any adverse order as he is not party to the case, however, since entire edifice has been built around his complaint, it needed to be dealt with. “The concerted effort to deprive the petitioner of his rightful entitlement, rather, shows that he is being victimised on the basis of an illinformed perspective which complainant Dr Ashok Khemka entertained regarding the sport of shooting, the event in question and qua the process of awarding medals in the sport of shooting,” the bench said, adding that it is not the case that Khemka holds any specialised academic qualification in the sport. “Even the questions raised by him in his complaint, reflected his utter ignorance about the sports activity and regarding award of medals in sport of shooting,” the bench said, adding that Khemka remained adamant in his “ignorance”.

It observed that what has happened gives credence to the argument of the petitioner that the Khemka has raised all these complaints because of the cadre rivalry between to IAS officers.