‘Back-Door Appointment,’ ‘Political Machination’: Supreme Court Orders 4 Haryana PWD Officers Repatriated After 20-Year Fight

Haryana Deputation Scam: Supreme Court calls Haryana PWD absorptions a “back-door” entry and “political machination,” ordering 4 officers repatriated after a 20-year fight over seniority.

North Desk Correspondent

Chandigarh, August 21

Four engineers who used deputation orders to leapfrog into Haryana’s Public Works Department nearly two decades ago have been ordered out of the department by the Supreme Court, in a judgment that repeatedly uses the words “illegal,” “political machination” and “back-door entry” to describe how they got in. The records that the state’s own officers, including a Chief Vigilance Officer, warned in writing that the appointments could turn “scandalous” years before anyone acted on it.

Haryana Deputation Scandal: The bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan, deciding a batch of nine civil appeals has held that the deputation and subsequent absorption of Pradeep Atri, Praveen Chaudhary, Pankaj Gaur and Arun Bhatia into the PWD (Building and Roads) Department was unlawful from the start, and directed that all four be sent back to their parent department, that is, the Development and Panchayat Department, placed just above whoever was junior to them there in 2005.

‘Could Attain Scandalous Proportions’

Haryana Deputation Scandal: The four officers originally joined the Development and Panchayat Department as Sub-Divisional Officers (Panchayati Raj) around 2004-05. Within months, each began requesting deputation to the PWD (B&R) Department, citing staff shortages there. What started as short-term deputations (meant, by the department’s own file notings, only to last “till the joining of direct recruits”) turned into permanent absorptions a few years later, vaulting the four men above engineers who had entered PWD through the regular Haryana Public Service Commission process.

The Court’s judgment lays out how Haryana’s own officials flagged this in real time. When the file for absorbing Atri came up in 2010, the judgment records that the Special Secretary, PW(B&R) Department, was “quite emphatic in his views,” stating “it was illegal as no ‘special circumstances’ existed for such absorption.” The judgment continues:

“According to him, the mere fact that there was an acute shortage of officers in the Department was no ground to absorb Shri Atri. Observing that the Government could be accused of making back-door appointment while absorbing Shri Atri which could attain scandalous proportions, he proposed repatriation of Shri Pradeep Atri to his parent Department.”

The Financial Commissioner and Principal Secretary, PWD (B&R) Department went further, according to the Court, describing the whole exercise as a “back door entry” as the officer noted that Atri “could not clear the direct recruit examination for the post of Assistant Engineer (Civil)” but ended up in the very same post anyway, by transfer.

The Haryana Public Service Commission itself was reluctant. On the file for absorbing Gaur and Bhatia, the Court notes the HPSC’s July 2009 response found “the materials on record did not reveal the existence of any ‘special circumstances’ that would justify absorption of the aforesaid two officers”.

Even the state’s own Chief Vigilance Officer weighed in against the absorptions, per the judgment: “The Special Secretary-cum-Chief Vigilance Officer also observed that there were no exceptional circumstances justifying absorption of the four deputationists. Therefore, he advised that these four officers should be repatriated to their parent Department”.

Every one of those warnings was overruled. The Haryana government went ahead and formally absorbed the four men — Gaur and Bhatia by an order dated October 23, 2009.

Haryana Deputation Scandal: ‘Political Hobnobbing’

Haryana Deputation Scandal: The Supreme Court was unsparing about why the warnings were ignored. On Arun Bhatia’s file, the judgment records that “the departmental Minister had intervened endorsing his request for absorption on the ground that he was performing his duties satisfactorily” — and the bench did not accept that at face value:

“The Minister concerned would not have had any occasion to make such an endorsement, that too, for a lowly ranked officer in the rank of Assistant Engineer which is quite low in the hierarchy unless he was approached. This is not only violative of service discipline but smacks of political hobnobbing. Such kind of blatant political interference and favouritism cannot be countenanced.”

The Court held that Pankaj Gaur’s file showed the clearest sign of “political influence… manifest in the process of absorption”, and summed up its finding on all four absorptions in a single line:

“…the High Court is fully justified in holding that the absorption of Shri Pradeep Atri, Shri Praveen Chaudhary, Shri Pankaj Gaur and Shri Arun Bhatia in the PW(B&R) Department is the product of political machination by them, rendering the same invalid in law.”  

Why the High Court Let Them Stay, and Why SC Disagreed

Haryana Deputation Scandal: The Punjab and Haryana High Court had already ruled, back on March 15, 2023, that the deputation and absorption of all four officers was “bad in law.” But it stopped short of sending them back, reasoning that the four no longer had a “lien” on their old posts and that removing them after 18 years in PWD would cause them “hardship.” The High Court’s own words, reproduced in the Supreme Court’s order:

“Though we are of the opinion that the very deputation and absorption of the private respondents in PWD (B&R) Department as Asst. Engineers is bad in law, it is brought to our notice that they do not have lien in their parent department i.e. the PR Department. Therefore, in the normal course we would have had to direct their termination from service. But since they had been in service since 2005, they would suffer hardship if their services are terminated now, 18 years later. Therefore taking a sympathetic view, we are not inclined to disturb their deputation and absorption…”  

Instead, the High Court had only barred the four from claiming seniority over direct recruits appointed on or after December 7, 2007.

The Supreme Court rejected that compromise outright. The bench held:

“We are afraid the High Court fell in grave error in allowing the aforesaid four officers to continue their services in the PW(B&R) Department even after declaring their deputation and absorption as illegal and bad in law. Illegality means something which is contrary to law; something which is wrong right from the inception. It is void ab initio.”

The Operative Order

Haryana Deputation Scandal: In its final conclusions, the Court held the deputations of Atri and Chaudhary to be “illegal” and those of Gaur and Bhatia to be “irregular” — but found the absorption of all four, without exception, to be “illegal, non est and void”. The operative direction:

“The same is accordingly set aside and quashed. Consequently, their continuance in the PW(B&R) Department on deputation has become wholly untenable. The above four officers are therefore directed to be repatriated back to the Development and Panchayat Department, Government of Haryana where their cadre and seniority will be determined by the authority of the said Department placing them immediately above the candidates who were junior to them in order of seniority in the cadre of Sub-Divisional Officer (Panchayati Raj).”  

The Court set aside the High Court’s 2023 order to the extent it allowed the four to stay in PWD, and disposed of all nine connected appeals accordingly.

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