HARISH K. DOGRA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE applicant has filed this OA under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, praying for the following reliefs: -

(2.) BRIEFLY stated, the facts of the case are that the applicant was a Grade -I Officer of the Indian Forest Service (IFS, in short) equivalent to Secretary to the Government of India. After the applicant had assumed the charge as High Commissioner of India (HCI, in short) in New Zealand, he received information from Non -Resident Indians (NRIs, in short)/Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) that they had been fleeced by a well entrenched lobby of travel/immigration agents/touts in collusion with some persons working under him in the HCI, Wellington, and at HQs in India in the matter of renewal of passports, visas etc. required in emergencies at short notice, by charging to the tune of NZ$ 65 to NZ $ 90, dependent on the service sought. The applicant being the Head of the Mission, in the course of his bounden duty to provide efficient and clean Consular services in a foreign country, and in order to keep up the fair name of the Government of India, he devoted personal attention to the Missions work in order to try for streamlining the system. He conducted surprise checks on more than one occasions, along with the head of the Consular Section, which revealed unaccounted/excess money in the hands of those dealing with Consular work, lending credence to the complaints received by the applicant. As a result, while the local employees chose to proceed on retirement pleading ill health, and the India based person found to be in collusion was shifted to another assignment. Other instances of major corrupt practices, leading to defrauding of the public exchequer by these and other officials of the HCI Mission were duly reported to the Disciplinary Authority (DA, in short), which included the case of an Assistant in the Mission, who was found to be spending 4 times his monthly salary, and the no. 2 in the HCI Mission, who had misused his position to sanction to himself for his personal gain Rs. 6 lakhs in inadmissible expenditure.

(3.) ACCORDING to the applicant when this news of his premature recall broke in New Zealand, there was widespread consternation among the NRIs there, against this unfair decision of the Government of India, and almost all Associations of NRIs, PIOs, and other eminent persons in New Zealand wrote letters of protest to the President, the Prime Minister, the Chairperson UPA, and Ministers in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) etc., questioning the decision, and asking for it to be reviewed/rescinded. There were also public demonstrations in New Zealand by the NRIs and PIOs against this decision.