Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court fined the state government Rs 10,000, for harassing a retired bureaucrat by its mal-intended “litigious perseverance”.

The high court had in 2012 ordered the government to pay the officer Rs 1 lakh for wrongly denying him promotion from the Gujarat Administrative Service (GAS) cadre to the IAS cadre. This time, the state government got flak for issuing a notice to Chavda while his appeal was pending.

The case involves N M Chavda, a GAS cadre-officer who was denied promotion in 2003. He is the son of former Congress minister Motibhai Chavda. He retired in 2010, but his legal battle against being denied the promotion and consequent benefits continued.

Chavda claimed that the Narendra Modi government harassed him without rhyme or reason by not clearing his name for the list of 10 candidates which was then proposed for elevation by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). The state government claimed that the inclusion of his name on the list for the IAS was provisional and the government did not endorse it because an inquiry was pending against him.

He moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which only ordered a speedy inquiry. Chavda, who was inducted in the GAS in 1977, moved the high court in 2005, alleging mala fides by the state government and demanding benefits.

In December 2012, a division bench pulled up former general administration department (GAD) deputy secretary Harsh Brahmbhatt for taking special interest in Chavda’s case to withhold his name from the list of the IAS. The bench observed that he was “bent on ensuring that Chavda did not enter the IAS cadre”, although all his ACRs showed him to be “a very good officer”.

Chavda had also challenged the government’s decision to punish him after the inquiry. The single judge remanded the matter back, and Chavda filed an appeal on this issue last year. While Chavda’s appeal was pending before the division bench, the state government issued him another notice. This irked the HC which noticed that Chavda had to go through the rigmarole of litigations due to the government’s perseverance. The HC refused to stay its order when the state government sought time to approach the Supreme Court.

