‘His Integrity Is Beyond Doubt’: IAS Officer Ashok Khemka Needs To Be Protected, Says Chandigarh High Court

Punjab and Haryana High Court has said that senior IAS Officer Ashok Khemka’s “integrity is beyond doubt” and he needs to be protected from the damage being done to his career, reports Indian Express.

“We are of the view that a person of such professional integrity needs to be protected as the professional integrity in our political, social and administrative system is depleting very fast,” noted the division bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Kuldip Singh.

The case relates to adverse remarks made by Haryana chief minister (CM) Manohar Lal Khattar in Khemka’s annual performance appraisal report (PAR) of the year 2016-2017. The IAS officer had sought to remove the adverse remarks made by the CM as well as restoration of overall grade of 9.92 given by the reviewing authority. Previously, Khemka;s case was dismissed by Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in December 2018.

The division bench while setting aside the CAT order said, “The remarks of the Accepting Officer and the grading of 9.00 given by the Accepting Authority are hereby set aside and the opinion given by the Reviewing Authority is restored. The grading of 9.92 given by the Reviewing Authority is also restored and will prevail upon the grading given by the Reporting Authority.”

“The severe constraints in which an honest and upright officer works under the political leadership are well known. There are so many pulls and pressures and the officer has to work according to the rules despite all these pulls and pressures. The Reviewing Authority has recorded that the petitioner is well known in the country for effective professional integrity under very difficult circumstances,” the bench said.