 "B Prasada Rao")
“The extension has been granted against the rules framed by the (Union government’s) department of personnel & training (DoPT). Since the extension is illegal and arbitrary, the petitioner is challenging it,” says the petition, filed by Ashok Kumar Bansal. He retired as general manager (production) from Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on December 31. An email to Rao for comments was not answered.
The petition comes in the backdrop of a proposal to extend the services of public sector unit (PSU) executives for up to two years even if they attained the age of superannuation (60 years), if they had a “good track record”. The proposal was cleared by a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram in May last year.
A Cabinet note on the proposal is currently in the works at the department of public enterprises. Once finally approved, ONGC Chairman Sudhir Vasudeva, Indian Oil Chairman R S Butola and Hindustan Petroleum’s S Roy Choudhury — all close to their retirement dates — might get extensions.
The government in an unusual move had last month granted a two-year post-retirement extension to Rao, a day before his superannuation. The decision was taken after a meeting of the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, Pulok Chatterjee, cabinet secretary Ajit Seth and heavy industries secretary Sutanu Behuria, on the reasoning that the company needed continuity in decision making. Bansal says Rao’s extension would set a wrong precedent. “It is already reported that in many other PSUs, the government is planning to take similar illegal steps. Some of the other cases where such extension is being claimed by present incumbents and bureaucrats is Indian Oil Corp and ONGC,” the petition said.
Bansal has asked for quashing of the extension and a direction to the Centre to produce records relating to the decision and to follow guidelines to fill the BHEL vacancy. He argued while granting the extension, the government did not lay down rules to deal with similar requests at other PSUs; the decision has been passed using a top-down approach from the prime minister’s office, as opposed to the prescribed bottom-up process from the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). And, that the cabinet secretary himself rejected Rao’s extension earlier but recommended it now.
Rao was appointed CMD in 2009 and was due to retire by superannuation on December 31, 2013, having attained the age of 60 years. “While the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has been given power to relax the age and qualification in relation to appointments, no such power is granted in relation to extension of tenure beyond the age of superannuation, except in the case of sick PSUs,” the petition said.
The PESB had in July 2012 started the selection process for a CMD in BHEL, shortlisting 12 candidates. These included three executive directors of BHEL. Also, M S Rana, chairman of Security Printing & Minting Corp; Kushal Saha, director at Heavy Engineering Corporation; Harpreet Singh, director at Container Corporation; R Mohan Das, director at Coal India; J K Sharma, director at NHPC, and I S Jha, director at PGCIL. And, Rao’s extension came after PESB selected Prakash Chand, executive director at BHEL, as his successor.
An email sent to Rao seeking comments remained unanswered.
