A public interest litigation has been filed against the recent handing of voluntary retirement to three members of the Indian Police Services.
On March 23, three IPS officers posted in UP—Amitabh Thakur, Rajesh Krishna and Rakesh Shankar—were retired as they were found 'unsuitable' to work as public servants.
Pratap Chandra, a social activist, has now petitioned the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court asking how the government could use the retirement provision without suspending and then conducting an inquiry into officials thus found unsuitable.
“This is a new trend. These officers were found unsuitable as they did not have the ability to toe the line of the ruling party. At this rate all government employees in the state will have to be party workers and not owe allegiance to the Constitution. This can happen only in a monarchy not a democracy”, said Chandra.
He also said that there was an anomaly in the government order. “If they were found unsuitable, why were they given three months’ salary?”, he said.
The PIL filed on eight grounds calls into question the flouting of service rules by the government.
The respondent named in the petition is the Government of India- as officers of the Indian Police Services are appointed by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The petition calls for the issuance of directions to the Central and State Government for formulation and implementation of open and transparent rules for premature retirement. It prays for presenting all the facts relating to the various decisions as regards premature retirement, including why and on what grounds officers are chosen for premature retirement.
Chandra, who has been running a ‘Loktantra mukti andolan’ (Free democracy campaign) for the last eight years, said that his petition was not for any specific individual(s).
“This new trend of voluntary retirement is just a means to control officers. It cannot be allowed to go unchallenged else there will always be a sword hanging over the heads of those who want to do their jobs without appeasing the government”, he said.
The petition, which has been submitted on Saturday, will come up for hearing in the first week of April.
