The Central Administrative Tribunal, Madras Bench, on Tuesday set aside the conferment of IAS on D. Jagannathan, Namakkal District Collector, holding that his selection for promotion was not done in a fair manner.
Disposing of an application filed by another non-State Civil Service officer, S. Sattanathan, the Bench, comprising members B. Venkateswara Rao and P. Prabakaran, held that the selection and appointment of Mr. Jagannathan to the IAS was vitiated. “Mr. Jagannathan lacks merit,” the tribunal said.
The Bench also directed the Selection Committee of the Union Public Service Commission to consider the cases of Mr. Sattanathan and Mr. Jagannathan and make an assessment afresh on their merit and ability in a fair and objective manner.
Mr. Sattanathan was originally appointed as Divisional Development Officer in 1989. At the time of filing this application, he was posted as Additional Director in the Tsunami Project Implementation Unit. He is presently working as Director of Social Audit in the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
Mr. Sattanathan said that in 2009, four persons from the category non-State Civil Service were recommended by the State for IAS promotion. He and Mr. Jagannathan were included in the list. He said though he was the senior-most and graded ‘outstanding’ for all the years, he was not appointed to the IAS promotion whereas Mr. Jagannathan has been appointed to IAS. P.V.S. Giridhar, counsel for Sattanathan, submitted that the State had not placed all the records related to a disciplinary proceeding against Mr. Jagannathan in which it was proved that he had committed misconduct by tampering with Annual Confidential Reports. Rejecting his contention, the Bench said, “Non-placement of all records relating to Mr. Jagannathan before the Selection Committee by the State government vitiates the selection. Therefore, the selection was not done in a fair .” The Bench directed the authorities to place all documents relating to him before the Selection Committee.
