Delhi Lieutenant-Governor says AAP govt order on officers illegal

Delhi lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung on Friday declared illegal an order by the AAP government slashing the salary of two special secretaries in the home department, setting the stage for yet another confrontation between the two sides.

Delhi’s home minister Satyendar Jain on Wednesday had issued an order saying special secretaries Yashpal Garg and Subhash Chandra will only be entitled to a subsistence allowance instead of their full salary as they were suspended by the Delhi government.

Mr Jain had suspended the two officials in December for refusing to sign in a file pertaining to hike in salary of public prosecutors despite the Cabinet clearing the proposal. However, the Union home ministry had revoked the suspension order.

In a letter to chief secretary K.K. Sharma, the L-G directed him to ensure full compliance of the Union home ministry’s directive and declared that Mr Jain’s order to pay the two officials only subsistence allowance has no legal sanctity. “The direction of the ministry of home affairs make it abundantly clear that no adverse action can be initiated against these officers based on the suspension orders since these orders were without authority of law, void ab initio and non est (does not exist). Therefore, the order dated January 27 issued by the Union minister of home, the Delhi government, has no legal sanctity and cannot be implemented,” a source said quoting from the letter.

Meanwhile, Mr Garg has written a letter to Mr Jain saying since the Union home ministry had revoked the suspension order, there was no question of accepting any subsistence allowance. He even said that Mr Jain’s order in this regard is “infructuous”.

In his order dated Januray 27, Mr Jain had said “in exercise of the powers conferred upon me under FR 53(1)” hereby order that Mr Garg and Mr Chandra shall be entitled to a subsistence allowance and not full salary as they were under “suspension”.

The suspension of the officers had led to major protest by bureaucrats as around 200 Danics (Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officers had gone on a day-long mass-leave on December 31. The IAS officers had also worked half-day that day.