ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL
EXCISE
GAZETTED
EXECUTIVE OFFICERS
President: Address for
communication:
Secretary General:
A. Venkatesh 240, Razapur,
Ghaziabad-201001 (U.P.)
Ravi Malik
Vice Presidents: Apurba Roy, P. C. Jha (East); A. K. Meena, Somnath Chakrabarty
(west); Ashish Vajpayee, Pranave Shekhar (North); B. Pavan K. Reddy, M.
Jegannathan (South); K.V. Sriniwas, T. J. Manojuman (Central) Joint
Secretaries: Ajay Kumar, R. N. Mahapatra (East); B. S. Meena, Sanjeev Sahai
(West); Harpal Singh, Sanjay Srivastava (North); M. Nagraju, P. Sravan Kumar
(South); Anand Kishore, Ashutosh Nivsarkar (Central) Office Secretary: C.
S. Sharma Treasuer: N. R. Manda Organising Secretary: Soumen
Bhattachariya
(Recognised by G.O.I., Min. of Fin. vide
letter F.No. B. 12017/10/2006-Ad.IV A Dt.21.01.08)
Ref. No. 100/AIB/P/19
Dt. 13.05.19
To,
The Secretary
DOPT,
North Block, New
Delhi.
Sub: Draft minutes of
the 47th meeting of the National Council.
Sir,
Kindly refer to the draft minutes of the 47th
meeting of the National Council issued vide F. No. 3/1/2019- JCA Dt. 30.04.19 by
the Establishment (JCA) Section of the DOPT.
2.
Your kind attention is invited to the reply given against the Item No.
31/19/NC-47 under the para 6.4.16 of the draft minutes. Under this para, the staffside
raised the issue of the implementation of the order/judgement given by the
legal court in rem.
3. The reply from the side
of administration was that the court judgements which are contrary to the
government policy can be implemented only in consultation with the DoPT or DoE
as the case may be.
4. In this regard, your
kind attention is also invited to the CBIC letters F. No. A-18013/3/2007-Ad.IV(A) Dt. 05.09.07
and F. No. A-32022/26/2013/-Ad.IIIA Dt. 13.12.13 directing the field formations
to ask first CBIC before the implementation of any court order/judgement. The
above mentioned reply given to the staffside as well as the DOPT OMs issued
vide No. 28027/9/99-Estt.(A) Dt. 01.05.2000, F. No. 28027/1/2016-Estt.A-III Dt.
26.03.16, F. No.
28027/1/2016-Estt.A-III Dt. 09.12.16 etc. also contain the same type of matter as was present
in the CBIC letters Dt. 05.09.07 and
13.12.13.
5. Inviting your kind
attention to the order Dt. 27.09.18 of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in W.P.(C)
11277/2016, it is to submit further with due regards that the Hon’ble High
Court of Delhi took serious note against the CBIC letters like F. No.
A-18013/3/2007-Ad.IV(A) Dt. 05.09.07 and F. No. A-32022/26/2013/-Ad.IIIA Dt.
13.12.13. These letters say, “in cases where the Court orders are adverse to
the interest of the department/Government, such orders should not be
implemented without clearance of the Board”. The Hon’ble High Court took
strong exception to these letters and was prima facie of the opinion that such
letters invite contempt of Court. However, at the request of the ASG, the
Hon’ble Court refrained from passing further orders and offered an opportunity
to the CBIC to withdraw the letters. Thus, it is very clear that any
government department including nodal departments like DOPT & Expenditure
is never above the Hon’ble Court and it is contemptuous not to follow the court
orders. So, needless to submit that the issuance of any
communication like letter Dt. 05.09.07 and 13.12.13 of CBIC (now withdrawn vide
F. No. C-18012/3/2015-Ad.II B Dt. 12.10.18 of CBIC in compliance of the
directions of the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi) amounts to be contempt of the Hon’ble
Courts.
6. Your kind attention is also invited to the verdict
given by the Hon’ble Apex Court in SLP No. 77457/2017 in r/o the order Dt.
23.03.17 given by the Hon’ble High Court of Delhi in WP No. 2634/2017 in which
the Apex Court said,“Once the question, in principle, has been settled, it
is only appropriate on the part of the Government of India to issue a circular
so that it will save the time of the court and the Administrative Departments
apart from avoiding unnecessary and avoidable expenditure.” The Hon’ble Court
further directed the Government of India to immediately look into the matter
and issue appropriate orders so that people need not unnecessarily travel
either to the Tribunal or the High Court or the Supreme Court.
7. Further, your kind
attention is invited to the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in P.K. &
Ors. V. K. Kapoor & Anr. JT 2007 (12) 439, Inderpal Singh Yadav & Ors.,
State of Maharashtra Vs. Tukaram Trymbak Choudhary by order dated
20.02.2007, Dt. 17.10.14 in the Civil Appeal No. 9849 of 2014 in the
matter of State of Uttar Pradesh & Ors Vs. Arvind Kumar Srivastava &
Ors etc. mandating to give the benefit of court verdict to all equally
placed persons. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the judgment Dt. 17.10.14 in
the Civil Appeal No. 9849 of 2014 in the matter of State of Uttar Pradesh &
Ors Vs. Arvind Kumar Srivastava & Ors held as under:
“Normal rule is that when a particular
set of employees is given relief by the Court, all other identically situated
persons need to be treated alike by extending that benefit. Not doing so would
amount to discrimination and would be violative of Article 14 of the
Constitution of India. This principle needs to be applied in service
matters more emphatically as the service jurisprudence evolved by this Court
from time to time postulates that all similarly situated persons should be
treated similarly. Therefore, the normal rule would be that merely because
other similarly situated persons did not approach the Court earlier, they are
not to be treated differently.”
8. In view of the above, it
is requested to kindly implement the court orders/verdicts/judgements in rem
instead of in person until orders/verdicts/judgements are given to be
implemented specifically in person and withdraw the reply in draft minutes
of the meeting of National Council as well as the OMs like No.
28027/9/99-Estt.(A) Dt. 01.05.2000, F. No. 28027/1/2016-Estt.A-III Dt.
26.03.16, F. No.
28027/1/2016-Estt.A-III Dt. 09.12.16 etc.
Thanking You,
Yours sincerely,
(RAVI
MALIK),
Secretary General.
Copy with
the request for necessary action to:
1. The
Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India, President House, New Delhi.
2. The Secretary,
Department of Expenditure, North Block, New Delhi.
3. The
Secretary, Department of Legal Affairs, New Delhi.