SOURCE: GREATER KASHMIR
J&K government has constituted a high-level committee headed by Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam to scrutinize and recommend cases of such civil and police officials for dismissal of their services in case they are found involved in anti-national acts.
According to an official, these acts include “supporting, harbouring militancy, supporting their acts, posing a threat to integrity and security of the state, etc.” For this reason, the committee headed by Chief Secretary has been constituted with members including Administrative Secretary, Home, Director General of Police, Administrative Secretary, GAD, Additional Director General of Police, CID and Administrative Secretary, Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs.
The committee shall scrutinize and recommend cases under Article 311 (2) (C) – security of the state.
To invoke the provision of Article 311 (2) (C), the GAD has said that the cases concerning security of the state should be referred by the Administrative Departments or Police Organizations to the Home Department. On receiving such reports, the Home Department shall examine the cases and on being satisfied i.e. if the case meets the requirement of the Article 311 (2) (C), it should place the case before the committee for “scrutiny and recommendation.”
“The recommendations in such cases should be supported by relevant records which may include a copy of the interrogation report and other collateral evidence to justify dispensing with the holding of an inquiry in the interest of security of the state,” according to the GAD.
The Home Department should place each case along with the recommendations of Additional Director General, CID, J&K before the committee. “The recommendations of the committee shall be processed by the Administrative Secretary, Home for orders of the competent authority in term of Article 311 (2) (C) of the Constitution of India,” according to the order.
The orders of dismissal should be issued by the GAD after the approval of the competent authority.
As per the GAD order all pending cases should be decided in the matter as per the laid down procedure.
The GAD has advised through an order to all departments to seek the advice of the Home Department before deciding the period of suspension of the Government employee whose dismissal orders are either quashed by the court or who resume duty after detention. “Accordingly, the Home department should offer advice to the department,” the order said.
An official told Greater Kashmir that such committee also existed in the erstwhile state before August 5, 2019 under Article 124 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir.
The officer said: “The law says that you cannot dismiss any person from the job without holding any enquiry. However, in such cases where it is not possible to hold the enquiry because the person is a threat to security of the state, we can dispense with the enquiry before termination of his service.”
Now, the procedure has been prescribed how to do it and hence, this committee has been constituted to scrutinize and recommend after reviewing whether the case falls in the provisions of Article 311 (2) (C) for action, the officer added.
