Retired IAS officer to be Haryana RTS Commission chief

TC GUPTA WILL BE ADMINISTERED OATH OF OFFICE BY CHIEF MINISTER MANOHAR LAL KHATTAR TODAY

CHANDIGARH: The Haryana government on Monday decided to appoint retired IAS officer TC Gupta as the chief commissioner of Right to Service Commission. He will be administered oath of office by the chief minister on Tuesday.

The commission constituted under the Haryana Right to Service Act aims to provide delivery of service to citizens in a timebound manner.

Gupta, who had retired in May from the government service, was picked from among 17 applicants, many of whom are retired IAS officers, by a committee headed by the CM and having leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda as a member.

Chief secy raised issue of pending CBI case

The culmination of the selection process however has not been without its share of disagreements over the candidature of the former IAS officer.

Chief secretary Vijai Vardhan is learnt to have raised the issue of a pending CBI case in a land release matter of Gurugram against the officer, incidentally in which Bhupinder Singh Hooda also figured.

The matter was handed over for a CBI probe on directions of the Supreme Court. The CBI though has not named the IAS officer and Hooda in the chargesheet presented before a special CBI court in Panchkula.

Also, registration of a first information report, as per the Right to Service Act, is not a disqualification for appointment in the commission.

The Act says that the chief commissioner or commissioner can be removed from the office if he has been convicted of an offence which in the opinion of the governor involved moral turpitude. The state government subsequently sought legal advice from advocate general BR Mahajan and went ahead with Gupta’s appointment.