Remove adverse remarks from Khemka’s appraisal report: HC
CHANDIGARH:PUNJAB and Haryana high court on Monday ordered expunging of adverse remarks by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar in the annual performance appraisal report of IAS officer Ashok Khemka.
Khemka, who is the principal secretary, science and technology, had moved the court in January seeking removal from his 2016-17 report the remarks made by Khattar. The bench of justice Rajiv Sharma and justice Kuldip Singh also restored the rating of 9.92 out of 10 given to Khemka by his reviewing authority — health minister Anil Vij. The CM had downgraded the rating to 9. Khemka’s reporting authority chief secretary DS Dhesi, had given him a rating of 8.22.
“We are of the view that a person of such professional integrity needs to be protected as the professional integrity in our political, social and administrative system is depleting very fast,” the court said while passing the order.
The court further observed that the CM has recorded that the minister has differed with the chief secretary but not given any reason for the same. “However, the same is found to be absolutely incorrect as the reviewing authority (the minister) has given brief reasoning recording that the petitioner is well known in the country for effective professional integrity under very difficult circumstances,” the bench said, adding that even the CM has not made any adverse remarks regarding the integrity of officer.
The minister had stated that Khemka made excellent achievements under severe constraints, to which the CM had recorded the minister or Khemka have “not specified any constraint what to talk of severe constraints”. The CM had recorded that observations on Khemka (by the reviewing authority) were “slightly exaggerated.”
Khemka — who was the topper in computer science and engineering at Iit-kharagpur in 1988 before he joined the civil services — has been transferred at least 50 times in 27 years of his service
In 2012, the then Congress government in Haryana filed a charge sheet against Khemka for “wrongly” cancelling Vadra’s deal. The BJP, which came to power in the state in 2014 , dropped the charge sheet, but has since transferred Khemka six times.
In his plea, Khemka had argued that the CM’S remarks and rating hampered his chances of elevation.