Keep ‘vulnerable’ employees away from sensitive posts: High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, March 22

In a pivotal ruling underscoring the critical significance of ethical conduct in government services, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that employees susceptible to temptation were required to be kept away from sensitive positions to safeguard the sanctity of public services.

Emphasising the necessity of integrity and moral fortitude in public positions, Justice Anoop Chitkara also made it clear that there would always be people desirous of getting their jobs done ‘legally or illegally through lawful or unlawful means by adopting decent or indecent methods’.

Their only concern was to get the work done and were neither bothered about unethical approaches, nor the fractures they caused in the administration. “It is not that only an employee at the lowest rank needs to control his desires, but the principle is of universal application,” he said.

Justice Chitkara was hearing a petition filed by a patwari apprehending arrest on the allegations of agreeing to enter a mutation based on forged documents by accepting bribe offer of Rs 27.50 lakh. The Bench was told that the complainant allegedly paid more than Rs 5.40 lakh. But the petitioner did not do the needful, leading to the filing of a complaint and consequent FIR.

“One enters the pathway to destruction by choice. Once such a person chooses to take the path of corruption, be it only once, he ends up in a trap,” Justice Chitkara asserted.

Declining the plea, he added that the employees vulnerable to temptation, not sticking to the ethical standards of living and having no control over their desires were prone to falling into entrapments, and it would be better for the system if they stayed away from such jobs.

He further said, “Even the government was required to keep them away from sensitive positions. Any sympathy with such an employee eroded the democracy’s success as ‘a vibrant democracy is a result of its meritorious, honest and skilled human resources.”

Referring to a video, Justice Chitkara asserted that watching it was an eye-opener. “It portrayed how the thugs made friends with government employees, influencing and manipulating them and ultimately having an upper hand in a system that was otherwise to be run by the rule of law,” he added while pointing out the collapse of ethical and moral values at almost all levels.