Chandigarh: The Haryana government Tuesday issued an order exempting its senior-most IAS officer Sudhir Rajpal from restrictions applicable to officers during the last two months of service.
In an order dated 13 October, the Human Resources Department exempted Sudhir Rajpal, a 1990-batch IAS officer, from the government’s 26 May 2022 instructions that restrain officers from exercising some powers like transfers, promotions, recruitments and purchases.
Rajpal is Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Home, Jails, Criminal Investigation and Administration of Justice. He also holds Environment, Forests & Wildlife, and Finance & Planning. He will “exercise all the powers enabling him as Administrative Secretary” up to 15 November 2026.
He has had a spotless career and is held in high esteem by his colleagues in the bureaucracy.
Rajpal retires on 30 November, so the two-month restraint period began on 1 October. The government gave him the exemption only on 13 October, three days after he had signed three transfer orders shifting 13 IPS and 22 HPS officers.
The order, signed by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, gives only one reason: “administrative exigencies”. It does not say what they are.
The curbs, amended through a 2022 letter, were originally imposed through another letter dated 19 April 2021, which noted that some officers, in the last two months before superannuation, had been issuing orders on appointments, promotions, transfers, tenders, purchases and disciplinary matters.
These, it said, did not pass muster on “integrity, transparency, rectitude, probity and impartiality”.
The government listed what such orders had led to. There were complaints of financial irregularities and loss to the exchequer. Undeserving persons had been appointed. There were charges of nepotism and favouritism. The letter said all this had tarnished the government’s image.
So the government decided that a retiring Administrative Secretary must send five kinds of cases to the Chief Secretary for prior approval in his last two months.
These were procurement, meaning tenders and release of payments or purchases; appointments and fresh recruitment, regular or contractual, with HSSC and HPSC excepted; promotions; transfers of all categories; and disciplinary matters where charges stand proved.
The guidelines said that defiance would invite disciplinary action and penal action under Rule 12 of the Haryana Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 2016.
The letter began with a rider: “Unless specifically directed by the Government…” The 14 October order in connection with Sudhir Rajapal gives those specific directions.
Though the state government has not specified what kind of “administrative exigencies” it meant while giving exemption to Sudhir Rajpal, a look at the IAS gradation list of the state shows how Haryana is facing an acute shortage of IAS officers at the top level—of officers who qualify for appointment as administrative secretaries.
Of the top 20 civil servants, beginning with the 1990 batch officer Sudhir Rajpal to the 2001 batch officer Vikas Gupta, the state government is left with only seven.
Of the 20, ten are on central deputation.
Anil Malik, 1991 batch IAS officer, is Secretary in the Ministry of Women and Child Development in the Centre. Malik’s batchmate, Abhilaksh Likhi is Secretary in the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying in the Government of India.
Venkatesan Umashankar of the 1993 batch is Secretary in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, while his wife and batchmate, Deepti Umashankar, is Secretary to the President of India.
Abhilaksh Likhi’s wife, Sukriti Likhi, an IAS officer of the 1993 batch, is Secretary in the Ministry of Defence. Her batchmate, Neerja Sekhar, is Special Secretary in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
Shyamal Misra of the 1996 batch is Administrator of the Digital Bharat Nidhi in the Department of Telecommunications. Rakesh Gupta of the 1997 batch is Additional Secretary in the President’s Secretariat. Nitin Kumar Yadav of the 2000 batch is Additional Secretary in the Department of Commerce. Vikas Gupta of the 2001 batch is Commissioner of the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan.
Besides the above ten, Pankaj Agarwal, a 2000-batch officer, is in jail. He is among the officers named in the CBI’s Rs 645-crore IDFC First Bank fraud case. The list shows him under suspension since 22 June. Vineet Garg, a 1991-batch officer, also figures in the CBI charge sheet in the same case. He is now ACS, Printing & Stationery, not a post that carries much weight. That leaves nine officers in the state out of the top 20, including Garg.
With Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi also included in these nine, the state is left with only seven of the top 20 to be posted as administrative secretaries—the top echelon of power in the state.
When the Haryana CM’s Principal Secretary Arun Kumar Gupta, who also held charge of Finance Secretary, retired on 30 September, Finance and Planning was also entrusted to Sudhir Rajpal. The government is yet to appoint a new Principal Secretary to CM.
The calendar as it shows on the IAS gradation list, indicates things will get worse in the coming days.
The list gives Rajpal’s retirement date as 30 November. He is at serial number one on the list. CS Rastogi, number 3 on the list, is due to retire on 31 December after his two extensions. Dr Sumita Misra, the other 1990-batch ACS at number 2 on the list, retires on 31 January 2027. The three senior-most officers in the state will all leave within about three months.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)