State sends seniority dispute of 6 IAS officers to DoPT

Chandigarh, August 10

Haryana has sent the case involving the tussle over the seniority of six 1990-batch IAS officers to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for advice and decision.

The case

The issue has arisen as three IAS officers of the 1990 batch — Ankur Gupta, Anurag Rastogi and Raja Sekhar Vundru — have challenged the present gradation list claiming that Sudhir Rajpal and Sumita Misra, who at present are placed above them, should be placed below them as they have been transferred from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir cadres, respectively, to Haryana

The DoPT is the cadre-controlling authority. While sending the case to DoPT, no decision on the part of the state government has been taken.

As the post of Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) in Haryana usually goes to the senior-most IAS after the Chief Secretary, it has been kept vacant.

Also, the present Chief Secretary (CS) TVSN Prasad is retiring on October 31, so any change in the seniority list could impact the selection of the next CS too as he or she is likely to be selected from the 1990 batch.

The issue has arisen as three IAS officers of the 1990 batch — Ankur Gupta, Anurag Rastogi and Raja Sekhar Vundru — have challenged the present gradation list claiming that Sudhir Rajpal and Sumita Misra, who at present are placed above them, should be placed below them as they have been transferred from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir cadres, respectively, to Haryana.

Their letter, dated March 1, and then another one, dated March 22, to Chief Secretary mentioned that as per rule 6 (3) of the Indian Administrative Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987, “if an officer is transferred from one cadre to another at his request, he shall be assigned a position in the gradation list of the cadre to which he is transferred below all the officers of his category borne on that cadre who have the same year of allotment”.

They also submitted a gazette notification, dated December 30, 1991, regarding the cadre allocation of their batch, where they say that Ankur Gupta, Anurag Rastogi, Anand Mohan Sharan and Raja Sekhar Vundru were placed above Sumita Misra in Haryana cadre, while Sudhir Rajpal was reflected in Himachal Pradesh cadre. They have also mentioned the case of IAS officer Alka Tiwari of their batch who was placed below all other officers of the Maharashtra cadre despite getting a higher rank in the same gazette notification.

In response to the letter of the three above-mentioned IAS officers, Rajpal and Misra submitted their replies on May 9 and June 3 respectively. The Chief Secretary then gave a personal hearing to Gupta, Rastogi and Vundru on July 29, and later to Rajpal and Misra too.

Misra told The Tribune, “I have been in the Haryana cadre from day one and have been placed above the three IAS officers (Gupta, Rastogi and Vundru) in gradation lists as per Rule 5 of the Indian Administrative Service (Regulation of Seniority) Rules, 1987.” Regarding the gazette notification of December 30, 1991, she said it only concerned cadre allocation and has nothing to do with seniority and their claim about it is bogus. Rajpal, who joined Haryana cadre on May 1, 1994, after a CAT order, couldn’t be contacted for comments despite phone calls and WhatsApp message.

Though the state government has not posted anyone as FCR, Home Secretary Anurag Rastogi has been the link officer for the Revenue and Disaster Management Department.

Meanwhile, Gupta is retiring on December 31 this year. Rastogi is retiring on June 30, 2025, Anand Mohan Sharan on August 31, 2025, Vundru on July 31, 2026, Rajpal on November 30, 2026, and Misra on January 31, 2027.