Delhi HC to hear plea against IAS officers' 'informal strike' on Monday

The Delhi High Court on Friday agreed to hear on June 18 a plea seeking direction to the Lieutenant Governor (LG) to ensure that the alleged 'informal strike' by IAS officers of Delhi was called off and they perform their duties as public servants.

The petition comes in the backdrop of another plea filed yesterday in the court seeking that the sit-in by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues at the LG office against the "strike" by the IAS officers be declared unconstitutional and illegal. This plea against Kejriwal's sit-in was also listed for hearing for June 18.

Today's petition was mentioned before a vacation bench of justices Sangita Dhingra Sehgal and C Hari Shankar and listed for hearing on June 18.

The plea has sought direction that IAS officers be asked to attend meetings called by the ministers of Delhi government and perform duties as part of their official function as public servants.

The petition filed by advocate Umesh Gupta demanded "strict administrative action against all those IAS officers for violating the Central Civil Services/ IAS rules of conduct".

In today's petition, Gupta cited media reports and claimed that for over past three-four months, despite best efforts of ministers of the Delhi government, "senior (IAS) officers holding key departments have been openly refusing to attend meetings called by ministers for urgent public work".

This has led to a situation where public work has been slowed down by the action of the IAS officers, it alleged.

"More particularly, issues of preparation for prevention of monsoon related illness, mohalla clinics, pollution levels, along with other public work requires urgent attention and seamless coordination between the cabinet of ministers as well as the IAS officers allocated work in the GNCTD departments," it said.

According to the AAP government, officers have not been attending meetings with the ministers and not picking up their calls due to which government work for people was suffering.

However, IAS officers' association has claimed that no officer has been on strike and no work has been affected.

Kejriwal and his ministers have been staging a sit-in at Lt Governor Anil Baijal's office since June 11 evening to press for their demands, including a direction to IAS officers to end their "strike" and action against against those who have struck work.

Kejriwal's deputy Manish Sisodia and health minister Satyender Jain are on an indefinite hunger strike to press their demands.

PTI