HC issues notice to 2 Punjab officers over missing files

CHANDIGARH: Taking cognizance of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking inquiry into the disappearance of over 30 files pertaining to inquiries/charge sheets of some IAS and PCS officers of Punjab, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday issued notice to the chief secretary, Punjab, and IGP, Chandigarh, asking them to file their response on the issue.The petitioner in this case has sought directions for CBI probe and reconstruction of those files within a specified period, so that disciplinary inquiries against the officers (eight IAS and 21 PCS) concerned may be continued and concluded.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rakesh Jain has issued notice while taking up the PIL filed by advocate H C Arora. The case has been fixed for February 27 for next hearing.
In his PIL, petitioner stated that more than 30 files pertaining to inquiries and charge sheets had gone missing from the table of then under secretary Yog Raj Sharma, personnel department. The names of officers to whom these departmental files were related are R Venkatratnam, Sumer Singh Gurjar, C S Srivastava, Himmat Singh, S K Ahluwalia, Ranjit Singh, Megh Raj, C S Talwar and Vijay N Zade (all IAS) and Sukhvinder Singh, Kuldip Singh, Paramjit Singh, Kuljit Pal Singh, Paramjit Singh, Harbir Singh, Sukhdev Singh Mahal, Karamjit Singh Sra, Lakhmir Singh, Indu Malhotra, T N Passi, Perneet, Paramjit Singh, P S Shergill, Inderyush Bharti, Jasdeep Singh Aulakh, Dalwinderjit Singh and N S Baath (all PCS).
The petitioner further stated that despite letters written by chief secretary Rakesh Singh, during the last six months, the Chandigarh Police has so far failed to register an FIR against Yog Raj Sharma, and only raised queries with the (chief secretary's) office. The communications sent by the chief secretary to the departments concerned have not received any substantial response, with the result that inquiries against all the 29 officers stand stalled.