In a landmark judgement, the Uttarakhand High Court has directed the Centre to provide Sanjeev Chaturvedi, an IFoS officer of 2002 batch, with record of his empanelment details. Chaturvedi had moved the High Court after failing to get empanelled as the Joint Secretary at the Centre. As per judgement, the central government will now have to disclose its records concerning the process and decision-making of his empanelment as Joint Secretary.
Though the disclosure is limited to documents pertaining only to Chaturvedi’s empanelment, it has set a precedent that can be used by those bureaucrats who fail to get empanelled without getting any clue of failure. Now the aggrieved officers may seek judicial intervention to have the government records pertaining to the process of evaluation for empanelment, and know the exact reason behind their rejections.
The fact is a number of bureaucrats have been clueless as to how they missed the opportunity to secure empanelment after the introduction of an ambiguous 360-degree method applied by the Centre for empanelment.
The High Court’s judgement has certainly given a sigh of relief to those officers who fail to get empanelled as Joint Secretary, Additional Secretary or Secretary at the Centre without getting any clue and sulk in silence.
