SHILLONG: Additional Chief Secretary Hector Marwein has moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Guwahati against the appointment of his next junior IAS officer M S Rao as the new Chief Secretary.
The CAT heard the matter on Monday and fixed the next date for order on February 3.
However, the CAT observed that the pendency of the matter will not be bar for the government to dispose of the representation of the applicant. Marwein had petitioned the chief secretary PS Thangkhiew regarding the need to appoint him as the chief secretary.
In the order, the CAT said that Kaustav Paul, the counsel for the petitioner, informed that the applicant had joined the administrative service on August 26, 1985 and he belongs to the Assam-Meghalaya cadre.
According to the petitioner, after he was appointed as additional chief secretary, in the absence of chief secretary in the past, he was handed over the charge of chief secretary from time to time.
The counsel for the petitioner said that on December 23, the government had appointed MS Rao (1987 batch) as the chief secretary bypassing seniority. The plea of Marwein is that he has the right to be appointed as chief secretary and this has been denied to him without assigning any reason.
The CAT hence issued notices to the respondents.
After the counsel for the petitioner sought for interim relief, the CAT has decided to consider the matter on February 3.
