Respite for 8 HCS officers as HC quashes vigilance charge-sheet | Chandigarh Information – The Occasions of India

Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana excessive courtroom has quashed a June 2023 charge-sheet filed by the Haryana Vigilance Bureau (VB) in opposition to eight Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officers in reference to irregularities within the collection of the 2001 batch.The ruling clears the trail for the eight officers—Jagdeep Dhanda, Kuldhir Singh, Surinder Singh, Veena Hooda, Jag Niwas, Kamlesh Bhadu, Vatsal Vashisth, and Sarita Malik—to be elevated to the IAS cadre underneath the state’s promotion quota. In an in depth order, Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri noticed that the officers’ names have been integrated into the charge-sheet regardless of having no connection to the unique case. The courtroom mentioned they have been by no means named as accused within the FIR, nor was any investigation carried out in opposition to them. “This courtroom is happy that the presentation of the charge-sheet… was not in accordance with legislation and is against the law in nature,” Justice Puri mentioned, setting apart the June 30, 2023, charge-sheet filed underneath Part 173 of CrPC. The unique recruitment course of, carried out by the Haryana Public Service Fee (HPSC), was challenged in 2002 over allegations of nepotism. Nevertheless, that writ petition stays pending. A separate 2005 FIR concerning the recruitment of assistant professors additionally didn’t hyperlink the HCS officers to any wrongdoing. Senior advocates Gurminder Singh and Inder Pal Goyat argued that the 2023 charge-sheet was filed with mala fide intent to jeopardise the officers’ IAS nominations, which the state govt had despatched to the UPSC in July 2022. Apparently, in the course of the listening to of the petition, the state govt conceded that the FIR pertained to assistant professors’ recruitment, and the petitioners weren’t named within the unique FIR, and no impartial investigation was carried out in opposition to them. MSID:: 128307859 413 |