New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Tuesday directed the Modi government to transfer a Bihar-cadre IAS officer, who had taken on the ‘traffic mafia’ in the state, to the Haryana cadre as the court has deemed that the officer and his family are facing threats to their lives.
A division bench comprising Justices Vipin Singh and Jyoti Singh also rapped the Bihar government for causing “immense humiliation and harassment” to Dr Jitendra Gupta, a 2013-batch IAS officer, and ordered it to pay the officer a compensation of Rs 5 lakh.
Gupta, the sub-divisional magistrate at Mohania in Bihar’s Kainoor district, had been fighting a corruption case, which the Patna High Court quashed in October 2016. He had alleged in court that the case was due to a conspiracy hatched by the transport mafia and the Bihar vigilance bureau.
According to the Delhi High Court judgment, the transport mafia held a grudge against the officer as he had successfully controlled the menace of illegal parking and overloading of heavy vehicles.
“Rather than rallying behind such an officer and providing protection to him, the state of Bihar has not only victimised him but has treated him as persona non-grata,” the high court said.
“The actions of the state government have led to a situation where, for several months, respondent no. 1 and his family members have undergone huge turmoil. He had to flee from the state for his safety and well-being as well as of his family.”
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Officer had sought intra-cadre transfer
According to the Delhi High Court order, the FIR against Gupta was filed in July 2016 following which he was suspended from service. He was reinstated in April 2017 after the FIR was quashed by the Patna High Court, which noted that the case against him was “based on falsehood”. This order had been upheld by the Supreme Court in February 2017.
Gupta, however, apprehended danger to his life and made repeated requests for a bodyguard, according to the Delhi High Court order. But with the Bihar government allegedly not providing him with any such protection, he wrote to the central and the state governments, seeking inter-cadre transfer from Bihar to Haryana, from where he hails.
While the Haryana government conveyed its “no objection” for the transfer, the Bihar government declined. This led to the officer approaching the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which directed the Centre to consider him for inter-state deputation to Haryana or for central government deputation.
CAT was convinced that the threats to Gupta were grave enough for him to be pulled out of Bihar. The Bihar government was, therefore, ordered not to withhold its consent for Gupta’s deputation.
The Bihar government had challenged this decision before the Delhi High Court.
‘Bihar government sought to delay the matter’
The Delhi High Court has also noted that the Bihar government made an effort to delay Gupta’s transfer. For instance, the court noted that the Bihar government, instead of approving the inter-cadre transfer, gave its consent for Gupta’s central deputation, despite the fact that the eligibility for the deputation is nine years’ service in the IAS.
As a 2013-batch officer, Gupta has only six years in service.
The high court called this a “sham” and a “calculated act on the part of the state government to delay the matter”, noting that this would have led to the central government rejecting the request because Gupta did not meet the eligibility requirements.
It has also opined that it is not safe for Gupta to return to Bihar as the mafia, as well as some senior officers of the Vigilance Branch, were out to get him.
“We must, therefore, come to the aid of an officer, who showed courage in the discharge of his duty, and must protect his life and liberty,” the Delhi High Court said. “If we fail in our duty to protect a man, who has had the nerve to stand up against mafia and the state machinery, we would be doing a great disservice to the system and setting a bad precedent, where no officer would gather the courage to stand up against the wrongdoers.”
The court has ordered that the state government’s assent for Gupta’s central deputation be treated as consent for inter-cadre transfer instead. The central government was directed to initiate the process for Gupta’s transfer to Haryana. The entire process has been ordered to be completed within four weeks.
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