The Madhya Pradesh High Court said on Thursday that it had taken the Union government “five decades to realise its mistake” in banning government employees from joining the “internationally renowned” Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
“It took almost five decades for the Central Government to realise its mistake; to acknowledge that an internationally renowned organisation like RSS was wrongly placed amongst the banned organisations of the country and that its removal therefrom is quintessential. Aspirations of many central government employees of serving the country in many ways, therefore got diminished in these five decades because of this ban,” said the High Court, while disposing of the writ petition of Purushottam Gupta, a retired Central government employee who had approached the court in September 2023 against the ban.
58-year ban
A bench comprising Justices Sushruta Arvind Dharmadhikari and Gajendra Singh disposed of Mr. Gupta’s plea after the Union government, earlier this month, lifted a 58-year ban on government servants from associating with the RSS. The RSS had been placed on the list of such banned organisations in 1966.
After the ban was lifted, the Union Department of Personnel and Training filed an affidavit informing the M.P. High Court about its July 9 office memorandum removing the RSS from the list.
In his petition, Mr. Gupta had challenged the constitutional validity and legality of various provisions of the Central Civil Service (Conduct) Rules, 1964.
‘Why was ban imposed?’
The HC added: “Ideally, we would have disposed of the writ petition as having rendered infructuous and academic, post the filing of the affidavit dated July 10, 2024. However, since the issues raised in the petition have national ramifications, especially pertaining to one of the largest voluntary non-governmental organisations, viz. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, therefore before parting with the matter, this Court finds condign to make certain observations.”
The court raised questions about why the ban had been imposed in the first place.
“The question therefore arises is, on what study or basis, activities of RSS organisation as a whole were treated in the decades of 1960s and 70s as communal or antisecular; what was the empirical report, statistical survey or material, that led the then government of the day to arrive at an objective satisfaction that involvement of Central Government employees with the RSS,” the High Court asked.
The court also wondered why the subsidiary non-political organisations of the RSS had also faced similar treatment.
Directed the DoPT and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to display the July 9 order on the home page of their respective official websites, the court also asked the government to transmit the information to all its departments and undertakings within 15 days.
