With Vivek Joshi (IAS:1989:HY) being appointed as the new Election Commissioner, the Haryana government will soon name his replacement as Chief Secretary. However, before making the appointment, the government must address certain technicalities related to the gradation list of IAS officers.
Traditionally, the Chief Secretary position is given to the senior-most IAS officer in the cadre. As per the Haryana IAS list on the official website of the Chief Secretary’s office, the current seniority order among 1990-batch IAS officers places Sudhir Rajpal at the top, followed by Sumita Misra, Anurag Rastogi, Anand Mohan Saran, and Raja Sekhar Vundru.
However, a seniority dispute has emerged as three IAS officers from the 1990 batch—Ankur Gupta, Anurag Rastogi, and Raja Sekhar Vundru—have challenged the current gradation list. Although Ankur Gupta has already retired, the issue raised by them could impact the appointment of the new Chief Secretary. In March 2024, these officers sought a revision in the cadre’s seniority list, arguing that Sudhir Rajpal was transferred from Himachal Pradesh to Haryana in 1994. They also raised concerns over Sumita Misra’s original cadre allocation, claiming she was initially allotted to the Jammu and Kashmir cadre, though there is no explicit indication of a cadre change on the official website.
Citing the Indian Administrative Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, they contended that an IAS officer transferred from one cadre to another at their request should be placed below all officers of the same category with the same year of allotment. Based on this rule, they argued that since they originally belonged to the Haryana cadre, they should be placed above Sudhir Rajpal and Sumita Misra in the gradation list. The officers had submitted a representation on the matter to then-Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal.
Determining IAS officers’ seniority falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), Government of India, rather than the Haryana government. The Haryana government and DoPT have already discussed the matter, and the DoPT had earlier written to the state government instructing it to resolve the inter-se seniority issue among 1990-batch IAS officers by considering Rules 5 and 6 of the IAS (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987.
In response, the Haryana Chief Secretary’s office wrote back to the DoPT, requesting a copy of the CAT (Chandigarh Bench) judgment concerning the allotment of Haryana cadre and seniority of IAS Sudhir Rajpal. The state government also sought clarification on Sumita Misra’s original cadre and whether she was initially allocated to another state before joining Haryana, requesting relevant documents for verification.
With the seniority dispute unresolved, the Haryana government must address the issue before appointing the next Chief Secretary.
(By-Rajeev Singh)
