Haryana Forestry Scam: Whistleblower IFS Officer Gets Relief From SC [Read Order]

The Supreme Court has waived the cost of Rs 50,000 imposed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on IFS officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, who has been pursuing legal battle for a CBI probe into multi-crore Haryana forestry scam unearthed by him during his posting there, in 2005.A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice AM Khanwilkar and Justice DY Chandrachud said; “The cost imposed by the high court is made easy.”The court’s order comes on an SLP moved by Chaturvedi against the February 7 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court vide which he was burdened with a cost of Rs 50,000 to be paid to the Haryana forest department for seeking two-month adjournment in a case instituted by the state government challenging the Centre’s 2010 order by which a two-member inquiry committee was formed by the Ministry of Environment and Forest to look into the allegations of corruption uneartherd by Chaturvedi.Chaturvedi had sought a two-month adjournment to file a reply as he awaited certain documents yet to be supplied to him by the state, despite repeated requests.On February 7, Justice PB Bajanthri of Punjab and Haryana High Court noted on Chaturvedi’s request for adjournment, “5th respondent (Chaturvedi) had ample time from 2014 when the writ petition was filed and notice was ordered to file reply statement. That apart he did not utter anything on 17.01.2018, 24.01.2018 and 29.01.2018 relating to filing of written statement. Therefore 5th respondent's conduct is required to be taken note of for the purpose of entertaining adjournment for 2 months to file written statement when the matter was already heard on behalf of petitioner and further Union of India Counsel for some time. Request for adjournment is accepted in part. Two weeks' time is granted to file reply statement subject to payment of the cost of Rs 50,000. Cost shall be paid to the Department of Forests, State of Haryana”.The court has also sought to know “if the Union of India can interfere in a disciplinary matter of a Member Service of a State in between initiation of disciplinary action till final order is passed in the disciplinary proceedings under the All India Service (Disciplinary and Appeal) Rules, 1969 (for short “Rules, 1969”) or not?”This forced Chaturvedi to move the Supreme Court by way of SLP while also adding that the high court had erred in considering him a member of state services when All India Services is a subject of the Union List and the officers will be under the Centre no matter where they are posted.It is to be noted that the Haryana government moved the high court in 2014 even as Chaturvedi’s plea for CBI probe into various malpractices in the state’s forest department was already pending before the Supreme Court since 2012.Chaturvedi maintained that the Haryana government moved the high court only to scuttle the adjudication by the Supreme Court and the state’s petition is “basically a proxy litigation on behalf of then Chief Minister, Haryana, BS Hooda and his OSD, then Forest Minister Kiran Chaudhary, then Principal Secretary (Forest) Keshani Anand Arora and their colleagues”.With Chaturvedi arguing that the petitions are nothing but parallel proceedings before the apex court and the high court, the Supreme Court also ordered on Monday that “… the high court shall take note of the similarity of the issue pending before this court after hearing all parties concerned”.Genesis of the caseChaturvedi had joined Indian Forest Service in the year 2002.While posted in Haryana, he unearthed and acted against a large number of forestry scams in the state involving many political bigwigs.He was chargesheeted for acting against large-scale illegal felling of trees mand poaching in Saraswati Wildlife Sanctuary. He was suspended for the same in the year 2007 but the order of suspension came to be revoked by the President in 2008.In 2009, Chaturvedi exposed a multi-crore fake plantation scam allegedly involving Hooda, Kiran Chaudhary and others where crores of government money was siphoned away.This, he said, annoyed the Chief Minister and for blowing the lid off various scams and malpractices, Chaturvedi was rewarded with the institution of penalty proceedings by the Government of Haryana. However, on a representation made by the IFS officer to the Cabinet Secretary, Union of India in August, 2010, a two-member enquiry committee was constituted by Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF), which submitted its report in 2010 finding the allegations against the State of Haryana, as true, and recommended CBI enquiry into dubious role of certain highly-placed politicians and civil servants.In 2011, the President passed another order quashing the charge sheet against him.The MoEF even favoured referring the issue to CVC for deciding the modalities of an investigation into the malpractices unearthed by Chaturvedi.That is not all.Even the CBI wrote to the CVC that the allegations levelled by the IFS officer against the Government of Haryana were...

Haryana Forestry Scam: Whistleblower IFS Officer Gets Relief From SC [Read Order]

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