Opinion | Shah Faisal’s: Re-Entry Into Service After Political Failure.

By Rayees ibn Mushtaq

The basic principle of good governance is the ‘Rule of Law’ which is exemplified by the equality of all citizens before the law and complete avoidance of arbitrariness in the exercise of power. This means that laws and their enforcement are legally and regulated so that no one – including the highest officials – is above the law. A legal constraint on the rulers means that the government is as much subject to existing laws as the citizens. Authoritarian regimes have been using power liberally and rule of law is not important to them but for a vibrant democracy like India, we have basic laws that provide rights to citizens. Article 14 of the Indian Constitution guarantees equality before the law as well as equal protection of law to all people within the territory of India. It includes the equal subjection of all persons to the rule of law, as well as the equal treatment of persons in like circumstances.

The motivation for writing this article is the news of some civil servants resigning from contesting elections and losing or quitting their jobs out of frustration. The latest news is about 2010 batch Kashmiri Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer Shah Faisal, who resigned on 9 January 2019 and formed a political party named Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM) in February 2019. He criticized the central government. formulated policies on Kashmir and promised a new brand of politics that included many separatist leaders and launched with much fanfare with the slogan ‘Hawa Badle Gi’ (Change will come). However, apart from former PDP leader Javed Mustafa Mir, the party has not attracted any other established politicians. Among those who joined the JKPM was JNU student leader Shehla Rashid Shoora, who was shot dead for raising anti-national slogans in the university. Faisal was arrested on August 14, 2019, after the abrogation of Article 370 while he was fleeing the country. The most insulting statement he made in a BBC interview was that there are either ‘puppets’ or ‘separatists’ in Kashmir, and he would not like to be a puppet. So, he was wearing a separatist hat. He was tweeting against the government since 2014 but no action was taken against him. However, he had a change of heart after being released from ten months of detention and leaving the party and politics he founded in August 2020.

Now, rejoined IAS in 2022. Apart from political reasons, there could be a reason why his resignation was not accepted. Secondly, as in IAS and IPS in Uttar Pradesh, there were very few cases where some officers went abroad to the USA, employed themselves and returned happily after earning a lot for more than 10-15 years. Joined and retired with a full pension. In another bizarre case, an IPS officer contested, lost and returned to service. These examples may have been cited as examples of withdrawing criminal or political Romeos.

Such actions by the central and state governments have raised a serious question on transparency, accountability and integrity in matters of governance under the rule of law, and integrity of civil services under Article 14 of the Rules to deal with similar matters. and maintains transparency and equity. On the one hand, some low diers in central and state services are being charged fees, voluntarily retired and even sacked for negligence, on the other hand, a few officers are being accused of abusing the system and contesting elections. get a license and come back with an apology. . How can the government justify punishing HC Gupta – an honest IAS officer – who, as Coal Secretary, was in jail for a trivial error in signing a file, when he The overall responsibility of the Minister (then the Prime Minister was also the Minister of Coal. Can we assume that some officers of the All India Service can deliberately violate the code of conduct? If this trend continues There will be chaos in the administration. The government should not allow violation of ethical rules as it sends a very bad message to the public. sent clear guidelines to be accepted. In Shah Faisal and other such cases, the ‘modus operand is to postpone the matter of accepting or resigning indefinitely until the net Working does not create a new norm for the officer concerned. For the same reasons, the working style of DOPT in the corridors of government is said to be You show me the face and I will show you the rule. On the contrary, the Ministry of Personnel and the Central Vigilance Commission continue to harass many officers who cannot pull the strings.

Now is the time to stop this mess. The PMO is a very busy office and in such cases, it is the selfish and biased advisers who are responsible for such blatantly unfair and ridiculous decisions that were rare under a central government a few decades ago. In the case of Shah Faisal, the government could have politically rehabilitated him after he was acquitted of sedition charges in another post under the Kashmir government, rather than setting a bad precedent for violating the rule of law. There are ways to rehabilitate people like Faisal but for God’s sake, please don’t mock the All India Services rules. This is why the Judiciary is interfering with the jurisdiction of the Executive. The government should take corrective measures so that such incidents of prolonged absence of officers do not recur. He should be fully accountable.