IAS officers are not political servants

In any democratic government, the political leadership may be in charge, but the bureaucracy actually controls the steering of administration. In other words, the “route map” for how governance moves forward is largely shaped by senior officials such as IAS and IPS officers. Even if the cabinet takes a political decision, it will only be implemented if officials from the Chief Secretary downward decide to move it forward. Because of this, every government tries to keep these officials under its control. However, some officers refuse to follow orders blindly. Although the state government cannot directly punish IAS officers outside the rules, it still has the power to transfer them or change their posts. Governments often use these powers without strictly following rules or procedures.

But recently, the government received a major setback from the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The tribunal ruled that appointments, transfers, and posting changes of IAS officers in the state cannot be done arbitrarily. Such decisions must be taken only after consulting the Civil Services Board (CSB), which has the authority to decide these matters. The tribunal also ordered that posts officially notified as IAS cadre posts cannot be given to non-IAS officers or retired IAS officers. This order is a double blow to the government because some of these cadre posts had been filled in violation of the rules by people considered close to the government. With this ruling, the government may have to remove them from those positions.

The legal fight against this dilution of cadre posts was led by the IAS Association, and it is believed that the issue was linked to actions taken against B. Ashok, the association president and currently the Principal Secretary of the Agriculture Department. B. Ashok is known as an officer who does not easily bow to government pressure, which reportedly made him unpopular with the authorities. Hence, there were attempts to move him to less important positions and away from the Secretariat. As part of this, the government transferred him to roles such as Chairman of the Local Governance Reforms Commission, Chairman of KTDFC, and Principal Secretary of the Personal and Administrative Reforms Department. B. Ashok challenged these transfers and obtained a stay order. Later, he approached the tribunal and secured the important ruling.

The tribunal also stated that the posts of Excise Commissioner, Director General of IMG, and Director General of KILA are IAS cadre posts. This raised questions about the government’s appointments to these positions. As a result, the government may have to remove Excise Commissioner M. R. Ajith Kumar, who is an IPS officer, from the post. The petition had also challenged the appointments of K. Jayakumar, a retired IAS officer appointed as IMG Director, and Joy Elamon, who was appointed as KILA Director. However, both had already left their positions earlier for other reasons. In short, the move that was initially aimed at targeting B. Ashok has now turned against the government itself. The government is now planning to file an appeal against the CAT order in the High Court. Some observers say the government may end up facing an even bigger setback if the matter goes further.