HC dismisses Sanjiv Chaturvedi's plea against work withdrawal

New Delhi, June 27: Delhi High Court dismissed a plea by controversial Indian Forest Service officer and AIIMS Deputy Secretary Sanjiv Chaturvedi against withdrawal of work allocated to him after he joined the premier institute on deputation in 2012. "We are sorry."

We are not agreeing and are dismissing the petition. We will pass detailed order later," a vacation bench of justices V Kameswar Rao and I S Mehta said while rejecting the plea. A day before his tenure of deputation comes to an end tomorrow, Chaturvedi, whose plea was rejected by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), had sought some work other than signing pension cheques.

During the hearing, when Chaturvedi's counsel, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, tried to place before the court his client's credentials, the bench had a word of appreciation saying "we know he has an exemplary track record". Chaturvedi, who served as the chief vigilance officer at AIIMS from 2012-14, said the only work he currently has was to sign pension cheques and all other works allocated to him were withdrawn on the orders of institute's director.

He has challenged work withdrawal order of AIIMS director, saying "it's an attempt to humiliate him for his action against corrupt practices in the institute." Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Centre, opposed the plea saying how can an employee challenge the allocation of work if he cannot challenge the service conditions.

He also said the AIIMS director allocated the work as per the regulations and by his own statement, Chaturvedi had been given "some work".

The ASG also said Chaturvedi's request for change of his cadre from Haryana to Uttarakhand had been allowed which happened in "very rare" cases.

"He (Chaturvedi) has problems with many political establishments. It there is malafide, why would the present government allow his plea for change of cadre from Haryana to Uttarakhand," Jain argued.

He said that Chaturvedi has challenged the work withdrawal orders in the CAT which had held that he was being allotted some duty.

Chaturvedi has challenged the order of the CAT before which he had petitioned against the work withdrawal. In the petition, he said the work withdrawal order made the post of deputy secretary defunct even though it was specially created by an order dated June 23, 2011 passed by the Union Health Ministry.

Gonsalves said under the June 23, 2011 office memorandum, the Centre had given some work to him, including preventing corruption at AIIMS, and this cannot be taken away.

PTI