Khemka moves HC against CAT order on Centre empanelment

CHANDIGARH: Senior IAS officer Ashok Khemka has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court challenging the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order, which had dismissed his plea seeking direction to the Centre to consider his empanelment.

It was on July 23 that CAT, Chandigarh, had passed the order. Khemka was seeking direction to the Centre to consider his empanelment for holding additional secretary or equivalent post at the Centre.

Khemka — who was the topper in computer science and engineering at IIT Kharagpur in 1988 before he joined the civil services — has been transferred over 50 times in his 27 years of service. Khemka has had run-ins with successive governments on various issues.

Before CAT, he had argued that non-empanelment at this stage would lead to cascading effect and he will not be able to serve at the Centre permanently.

He had also argued that the eligibility criteria for such empanelment required minimum three years of service at the Centre at the level of deputy secretary and above. He offered himself on a number of occasions, but was not appointed without any fault on his part, he had argued.

However, CAT dismissed the plea observing that appointment of a person at the Centre can’t be a matter of right. In the HC, the plea was taken up by a bench of Justice RK Jain on Thursday, but the hearing has been deferred for Friday.