SHILLONG, Jan 30: In what may be described as a humiliating ordeal, the state government issued an order on Friday demoting three women Meghalaya Civil Service officers who had been promoted just recently.
Two of the women officers were promoted as Additional Deputy Commissioners from the post of Extra Assistant Commissioners on December 23 last year while the third one was promoted on January 10 this year.
Secretary of Personnel & Administrative Reforms (A) department, CVD Diengdoh on January 28 issued an order stating that in pursuance to the judgment and order of the Division Bench of the Meghalaya High Court in 2019, the promotion of the three MCS officers are kept in abeyance till further orders.
All the three officers have been reposted as EACs in their respective districts.
The decision of the state government has not gone down well with the MCS officers who revealed that the three women officers were deservingly promoted as per the merit list.
“However, the decision was taken at the behest of MCS officers from Garo Hills, who claimed to be seniors despite being ranked lower in the merit list prepared by the Meghalaya Public Services Commission and the government. The contention of the MCS officers from Garo Hills was that they were seniors since they had joined the services before the three women officers.
“The three women officers were better placed on the merit list prepared by MPSC and the government and therefore they are seniors by merit. This act of the Personnel department is unprecedented and has dented the image of these officers,” a source said.
It was informed that the MCS officers from Garo Hills had filed a petition in the High Court in 2018 which was disposed of by a Single Bench stating that merit prevails. However, they moved the Division Bench in 2019 which observed that the matter needs to be referred to a Single Bench and until the matter is disposed of status quo vis-à-vis the gradation needs to be maintained. The matter is still pending for disposal.
“The government, in a knee-jerk reaction and with utmost prejudice, demoted these women officers. The question is the Court never directed the government to withhold their promotions. This act of the Personnel department and particularly MPSC is an attempt to put unjustified reservation ahead of merit,” the source said.
The source further revealed that the MPSC never deputed its counsel to report before the Court for fear of being exposed. “An RTI filed in 2019 claimed that there were 40 vacancies.
The advertisement, issued by the MPSC in 2009, did not disclose the number of vacancies but the same MPSC declared 74 candidates as successful,” the source said.
“The point here is that in 2009 when the advertisement was issued, vacancies were not indicated but in 2019, MPSC responded to an RTI and said there were 40 vacancies. Whoever was at the helm of affairs in the MPSC in 2019 must be probed as there appears to be mala fide intent,” the source said, adding, “The High Court had imposed a fine on MPSC for not having appeared before the Court. The Counsel did not appear before the Court on the instruction of a certain individual who was then at the helm of affairs.”
A senior MCS officer, on the condition of anonymity, questioned why the government did not defend the dignity of these officers. “Why promote them in the first place and insult them like this?” the officer said.
“This is a huge blow to the Khasi-Jaintia officers. There’s no point in burning the midnight lamp when you know that someone who lacks merit will boss around. This is the state of affairs. We wonder if the same treatment had been meted out to an IAS officer what would have been the response of the IAS fraternity,” the officer added.
KHNAM MLA, Adelbert Nongrum termed the move as unacceptable.
“The state government should clarify why the three officers were demoted. I strongly suspect that these officers are victims of a political conspiracy,” Nongrum said while adding that there was no justification in demoting these officers since they were ahead on the merit list prepared by MPSC.