ASHOK KHEMKA Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner-Dr. Ashok Khemka, who is an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) Officer and holding the rank of Principal Secretary to Government of Haryana, has invoked the writ jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for quashing of the impugned order dated 3.12.2018, (Annexure P-1) passed by Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, Chandigarh (for short 'the Tribunal'). Petitioner has also prayed for expunging the adverse remarks and over all grading given by Accepting Authority under Section V-Acceptance of the PAR for the period from 8.4.2016 to 31.3.2017 (Annexure P-2) while restoring the over all grade of 9.92 as given by the Reviewing Authority.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are that applicant-petitioner is 1991 batch Indian Administrative Services Officer (IAS), presently posted as Principal Secretary, Department of Sports, Government of Haryana. Under All India Services (Performance Appraisal Report), Rule 2007 (for short 'the AIS (PAR) Rules, 2007, the Performance Appraisal Report (for short 'the PAR') is written for every member of All India Services for each financial year as per Schedule 2. There are general guidelines in the said schedule for filling the PAR for which time frame is given as under: - <FRM>JUDGEMENT_54_LAWS(P&H)3_2019_1.html</FRM>

(3.) Applicant-Petitioner claims that in his case for the PAR for the period from 8.4.2016 to 31.3.2017, Accepting Authority wrote the remarks on 31.12.2017 and took 184 days in doing the same. Further on the comments of applicant-petitioner under Rule 9 (2) of the AIS (PAR) Rules, 2007, no decision has been taken so far. Petitioner has also made a representation dated 1.6.2018 to the Chairperson of Referral Board stating that due to failure of the Accepting Authority to decide the representation within the prescribed time frame, the views of the Reviewing Authority has acquired the finally ipso juris and must be acted upon by expunging the appraisal of the Accepting Authority. However, no response has been received.