UPSC agrees to provisional promotion of 9 'tainted' HCS officers to IAS

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) today recommended the promotion of 27 HCS officers to IAS, including provisional promotion of nine 'tainted' ones of the 2002 batch.

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The tainted officers include eight who are facing a chargesheet for alleged malpractices in their recruitment exam. They are Jagdeep Dhanda, Sarita Malik, Kamlesh Bhadoo, Kuldhir Singh, Vatsal Vashisht, Jag Niwas, Veena Hooda and Surender Singh-1. The charges against them included cheating, forgery, criminal conspiracy, and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

The State Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau had filed a chargesheet against them in 2023. It is alleged that they got selected to HCS after a deliberate increase in marks of different subject papers by forgery. However, the state still issued integrity certificates to them.

The charges are yet to be framed against them.

The ninth HCS officer is Mahabir Parsad, also of the same batch, who is facing a chargesheet in another matter. In today’s UPSC meeting, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi was also present.

The provisionally promoted HCS officers need to get the FIR quashed against them in a time frame, according to sources.

Despite a chargesheet against the tainted officers, Haryana had been pushing for their promotion for some time. The Advocate General, Haryana, had given a favourable opinion too. The UPSC had taken opinion from the Solicitor General, who had said officers facing chargesheet should be treated as provisional.

As per the rules, the number of members of the State Civil Service to be included in the list for promotion is determined by the Central Government in consultation with the state government. The Rule 7(3) of the Indian Administrative Service (Appointment by Promotion) Regulations, states, “The list as finally approved by the Commission shall form the Select List of the members of the State Civil Service. Provided that if an officer whose name is included in the Select List is, after such inclusion, issued with a charge sheet or a charge sheet is filed against him in a Court of Law, his name in the Select List shall be deemed to be provisional.”