Madhya Pradesh high court rejects plea against former babu's posting

JABALPUR: In a big relief to former IAS officer Prabhat Parashar, Madhya Pradesh high court dismissed a PIL challenging his appointment as chairperson of the MP State Cooperatives Election Authority (Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sahkarita Nirvachan Pradhikaran).
During the hearing on Friday, division bench comprising acting Chief Justice K K Lahoti and Justice Rohit Arya found arguments put forward by the petitioner's counsel untenable.
Petitioner and RTI activist Ajay Dubey had alleged the officer in flagrant violation of rules did not apply for the post and his name was added as an afterthought by the government. The petition said, no rules were followed by the state government to appoint Parashar to the post, The only basis for action was his letter of self-recommendation to the chief secretary. His name did not figure in the list of 44 retired IAS officers, which was prepared by the general administration department (GAD). The post was advertised in March and Parashar. But later he wrote a letter to the CS expressing willingness to seek voluntary retirement, if offered the job.
The petitioner claimed that a three-member screening committee after scrutiny shortlisted three names. Parashar, who was already posted in the GAD, was one of them. At this juncture, the officer promptly forwarded the application of a voluntary retirement to the state government, which was accepted by the chief secretary. In fact, the CS also waived the prescribed three-month notice period under death cum retirement benefit rules 1968, in this particular case. His VRS application was accepted on June 24. Soon after, he joined.
Dubey submitted before the court that in its eagerness to appoint Parashar, the state government skipped the vigilance screening, which was conducted in case of other candidates. This, the petitioner claimed, showed collusion between the officer and government.
Appearing for the state government, additional advocate general Purushendra Kaurav submitted that selection of Parashar for the post met all procedural requirements mentioned under the Section 7 (C) of the MP state cooperatives rules. He fulfilled all conditions relating to age, experience and job profile as laid down by the Act.
Kaurav also questioned the tenability of the petitioner's main objection that Parashar was appointed without undergoing the mandatory vigilance screening into his credentials. There was no provision for a vigilance clearance for this particular office, AAG argued before the bench, which upheld Parashar's appointment .