In a blow to Haryana government, President Pranab Mukherjee has quashed a departmental charge sheet issued last year by the state administration against a whistleblower Indian Forest Service officer.
The charge sheet was issued last August when IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who exposed several forest scams in Haryana, sought permission from the state government to be relieved for Central Deputation.
Chaturvedi, currently on deputation as the Chief Vigilance Officer at AIIMS here, had submitted a representation to the President last year against the charge sheet filed by Haryana government over his alleged failure in implementing a plantation programme in Jhajjar.
Chaturvedi, a 2002-batch officer, had alleged that the charge sheet was filed at the behest of powerful politicians who were wary of his stand against corruption in the state forest department.
The aim behind the charge sheet was "to withhold the vigilance clearance to thereby (jeopardise) his relieving for Central Deputation", Chaturvedi had said.
"The President, in exercise of powers under Rule 24 (1) (a) All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, upholds the memorial/representations submitted by Chaturvedi and orders that the charge sheet (against which) an inquiry was ordered against him stands revoked/quashed with immediate effect," says the order issued on behalf of the President.
Sources said this was third intervention by the President of India in the last five years to quash the orders of the Haryana Chief Minister in the same officer's case. President of India
The first Presidential intervention came in January, 2008, when Chaturvedi's suspension order was quashed.
The second Presidential intervention occurred in January, 2011, when a departmental charge sheet was issued to the officer under major penalty proceedings. That order was also quashed by the President.
