The Punjab and Haryana High Court has held that former Haryana IAS officer Ashok Khemka was subjected to discriminatory treatment when the Centre denied him empanelment at the level of additional secretary/secretary with the government of India despite granting relaxation of eligibility conditions to other similarly situated officers.
The Bench also directed Khemka to be treated as an empaneled additional secretary/secretary for future assignments.
Allowing Khemka’s writ petition, the Division Bench of Justice Harsimran Singh Sethi and Justice Deepak Manchanda ruled that the Union government could not deny him the benefit of relaxation without demonstrating any distinguishing factor between him and other IAS officers who had been granted the same concession.
Khemka had challenged three orders passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal in July 2023, whereby his claim that he should be treated as having been empaneled at the level of additional secretary/secretary to the government of India before his retirement was rejected. He was represented in the matter by advocate Shreenath A. Khemka.
The principal issue before the High Court was whether empanelment at the rank of additional secretary/secretary could be granted despite the eligibility condition requiring an IAS officer to have served on Central deputation in the rank of Deputy Secretary or above for a minimum period of three years.
The Bench noted that the applicable rules prescribed the three-year Central deputation requirement, but the Union government possessed the power to relax the condition. The court further recorded that such relaxations had been granted on several occasions to similarly placed IAS officers.
The judgment, among others, referred to the case of a 1992-batch Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer granted empanelment as additional secretary/secretary with the government of India on March 7, 2022, through relaxation of the eligibility requirement, even after Khemka’s claim had been rejected in 2021. “The said facts have gone unrebutted at the hands of UOI," the Bench observed.
The court added: “Once the Union of India exercises jurisdiction to relax the requirement of having worked on central deputation for a minimum period of three years at the level of Deputy Secretary and above and such relaxation was even exercised in favour of similarly situated IAS Officers, the non-exercise of the same will surely amount to discrimination." the Bench held.
The judges further observed that no differentiating fact had been brought to the court’s notice to justify treating Khemka differently from other IAS officers who had received exemption from the Central deputation requirement.
Holding that such unequal treatment violated Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution, the court said: “Since, there is no such differentiating fact which has been brought to the notice of the Court between the petitioner and the other IAS Officers who were empaneled in the cadre of additional secretary/secretary with the government of India by grant of exemption of having worked in the cadre of Deputy Secretary or above with the government of India, same will amount to discrimination between the similarly situated Officers so as to violate Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India."
The Bench added that the benefit of parity, in such circumstances, was required to be granted to the petitioner with the other similarly situated officers “so that no prejudice is caused to him."
The court, at the same time, clarified that Khemka had already retired and empanelment primarily served the purpose of bringing an IAS officer on deputation with the government of India. As such, no such benefit could now be extended to him in service.
“As the petitioner has already retired and the empanelment is only for the purpose of bringing an IAS officer on deputation with the government of India, no such benefit can be granted to him as of now. But for the future prospects/assignment for which the preference is given to the officers empaneled as additional secretary/secretary with the government of India, the petitioner will be treated on equal footing to such officer and will be treated as empaneled as additional secretary/secretary with the government of India for such consideration for the future assignment only," the court ordered.
