LAKSHMI MURDESHWAR PURI Vs. SAKET GOKHALE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Having secured the second rank at the All India Civil Services Examination, the plaintiff joined the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) in 1974. She served as Ambassador to Hungary as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. From 1993 to 1999, she was Joint Secretary, Economic Division and Multilateral Economic Relations. In 2002, she joined the United Nations as the Director of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). From 2007 to 2009, she served as Acting Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD. From 2009 to 2011, she was Director of the UN Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States in New York. In 2011, she was appointed Assistant Secretary-General of the UN, prior whereto she took voluntary retirement from the IFS. She also served as Deputy Executive Director of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women (UN WOMEN), from 2011. Prior to her 15 years' stint at the UN, therefore, the plaintiff served as an Indian diplomat for 28 years. She demitted public service in February, 2018.

(2.) The plaintiff's husband, too, was an IFS officer of the 1974 batch, who served at Ambassador level posts from 1999 to 2013. Prior thereto, he worked with the UN Development Program (UNDP) from 1988 to 1991. From 2002 to 2005, he served as the Permanent Representative of India to the UN in Geneva and, thereafter, at New York from 2009 to 2013. He also served as Chairman of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, an autonomous think tank under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. He has been a Union Minister under the present Government since September, 2017, having won two elections.

(3.) By any reckoning, therefore, the plaintiff, and her husband, have been distinguished public servants.