An RTI by a whistleblower wakes up the Union Government from a decade-long slumber to ask for an urgent status report from all states on the formation of Civil Services Boards (CSBs). The Department of personnel and training (DoPT) wrote to the states on Dec 16, asking them if CSBs were constituted in line with the Supreme Court’s order.
The Supreme Court, in its verdict on Oct 31, 2013, had called for the formation of the CSB in every state to ensure stability in the posting of civil servants, fixing a minimum tenure of two years for All India Service (AIS) officers. The verdict was followed by a DoPT’s notification to this effect, in 2014.
Both, the apex court verdict of 2013 and the subsequent DoPT’s notification in 2014, made it mandatory that postings to cadre posts be based on CSB recommendations with a minimum two-year tenure for AIS officers.
According to the rules, states are required to submit quarterly reports to the Centre explaining transfers made before completion of the minimum tenure.
Thus, it is virtually a follow up action of the DoPT’s own notification issued more than a decade ago, in 2014. Interestingly, even this follow up action was taken only after an RTI was filed by whistleblower Sanjiv Chaturvedi (IFS:2002:UK), an Indian Forest Service officer of Uttarakhand cadre on Dec 3.
Chaturvedi’s RTI has sought certified copies of file notings, documents and correspondence identifying states that have constituted CSBs, along with details of premature transfers of All India Service officers — IAS, IPS and IFS — in violation of tenure norms since the 2014 notification.
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