Haryana govt refuses to give annual confidential report to IFS officer

Times of India: Chandigarh: Saturday, June 01, 2013.

Haryana government has refused to give the annual confidential report (ACR) to whistleblower IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi stating that it is not in public interest.

In a legal notice sent to the state additional chief secretary (forest) Ramendra Jakhu recently, Chaturvedi has termed it a violation of a Supreme Court order which had ruled in 2008 that the ACR should be conveyed to the official concerned in a reasonable time period.

A 2002 batch IFS officer of Haryana cadre, Chaturvedi was transferred 12 times during 2005-2010 by the Haryana government apart from lodging two criminal cases against him after he exposed irregularities in the forest department.

The Central government in 2012 had recommended a CBI probe into the alleged scams, including irregularities in tree plantation in Jhajjar and Hisar division, but the state government did not follow the directive. In 2012, he was sent to All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, on deputation as its deputy secretary.

The state government did not communicate Chaturvedi's ACRs for 2010-11 and 2011-12 for long even after a representation to the forest department by the officer.

He submitted an RTI application on March 4, seeking certified copies of his ACRs for two financial years. In a reply, forest department public information officer said "disclosure of ACR is not in public interest and accordingly the said information cannot be supplied".

In the legal notice, Chaturvedi said, "This was blatant violation of provisions of RTI Act, 2005 as nowhere the said Act prohibits such disclosure."

The apex court on May 12, 2008, had ordered that entries of ACR of a public servant irrespective of the nature of the entries must be communicated to the officer within a reasonable period so that he or she can make a representation for its upgradation.

Haryana government did not provide a copy of the ACR to Chaturvedi even after the Union government asked the state for the same. According to the legal notice, state chief secretary P K Chaudhery had also asked Jakhu to communicate the ACR to Chaturvedi.

When contacted, Jakhu claimed on Friday that there was no question of refusal (to give the ACR to the officer) and that "needful will be done shortly".