15 UP PCS officers who resisted transfer to Uttarakhand for 16 years asked by Supreme Court to join hill state

DEHRADUN: A piquant situation has arisen in the Uttarakhand bureaucracy with 15 Provincial Civil Services (PCS) officers of the UP cadre — who had been transferred to the Uttarakhand cadre when the state was formed 16 years ago and had resisted the move — lost their court battle to remain in UP after the Supreme Court (SC) recently ordered them to shift to the Uttarakhand cadre.

With these officers now moving to the Himalayan state, they will have to be accommodated in the current bureaucratic set-up which has led to heartburn among the babus of the state especially those belonging to the PCS.

The biggest fear among serving PCS officers is that the induction of their counterparts from UP (most of whom are senior officials with an average service period of 20 years) will upset their promotion trajectory since the new inductees will have to be suitably accommodated as per their seniority. “Many PCS officers are in a state of tizzy as the arrival of the new officers will dismantle their hopes of a promotion in the near future,” said an official in the state secretariat.

The case of the fifteen PCS officials dates to the year 2000 when the officials, opposing the transfer of their cadre to Uttarakhand, had initiated a legal battle against the move in the Allahabad high court. After the high court rejected their plea, the officials approached the Supreme Court in 2003 and the case dragged on for almost 12 years when the Supreme Court decreed in early 2015 that the move to transfer them was correct.

The officials then filed a fresh writ in the high court and subsequently approached the Supreme Court for a review.

Following this, the SC sometime back had ordered that the officials be relieved of their duties in the UP government and their joining in the Uttarakhand cadre be facilitated. Attar Singh, joint secretary, personnel, Uttarakhand government, told TOI that the case of these officials was against the UP government which had initiated the transfer, and the Uttarakhand government was not a party in the case.

“We have not received any communication from the UP government about the fifteen officers but I believe that after the SC order, they would be joining Uttarakhand as per the procedures,” he said.

Incidentally, Uttarakhand has 89 IAS officers and almost a similar number of PCS officers as per sources. Many PCS officers are inducted into the IAS after they put in a certain number of years of service. But with the new inductees, those among the PCS who were in line of being promoted to the IAS cadre would be hit the most, said a source. Meanwhile, murmur campaigns have also begun in bureaucratic circles to shift those officers of the UP cadre--who had been staying put in Uttarakhand — back to their home cadre.

Officials said that at present, there are two PCS officers from the UP cadre who are posted in Uttarakhand. “These officials are on the payrolls of the UP government but continue to enjoy perks and other benefits in our state. The state government should move them back as it does not augur well for the morale of the officials of theUttarakhand cadre," said an official who did not wish to be named.