Shimla, June 18
In a landmark judgement, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has quashed the compulsory retirement of a senior IAS officer, Mr K. Lal, by the Himachal Pradesh Government.
Mr Lal, who was Commissioner-cum-Secretary, Manpower Planning, was compulsorily retired by the state government in July last year and he challenged the action in the principal Bench of the CAT.
This was perhaps the first such incidence of compulsory retirement of an IAS officer by any state government in the region.
Mr Lal has now represented to the state government to provide him some suitable posting as he is being kept waiting for the past two years which is against the spirit of the all India service rules applicable to IAS officers.
He has said he is being paid a monthly salary of Rs 30,000 with all service benefits without any work.
The state government had also compulsorily retired another IAS officer, Mr Vinod Lal, along with him. Mr Vinod Lal had also filed a petition in the CAT.
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Bench of the CAT consisting of Mrs Lakshmi Swaminathan, Vice-Chairman and Mr Govindan S. Tampi, Member, observed that Mr K. Lal was rated in his annual confidential roll (ACR) as “very good” in 1991-92 and 1993-94.
In fact in 1991-92, the reviewing officer improved his categorisation and rated him as “excellent”. In 1994-95, he was assessed as “outstanding” by the assessing officer.
Counsel for Mr Lal pleaded that circumstances made it clear that he had been dealt with in a hostile, discriminatory and arbitrary manner by the government.
