Days before his retirement, Sanjay Gupta appointed HP chief secretary

Shimla: The Himachal Pradesh govt on Tuesday appointed 1988-batch IAS officer Sanjay Gupta as the chief secretary of the state in "public interest", just four days ahead of his superannuation on May 31.Gupta, who is currently serving as the additional chief secretary, town and country planning and housing department, has been holding the additional charge as the chief secretary since Oct 1 last year, following the retirement of former chief secretary Prabodh Saxena.The govt, however, has not yet indicated who will succeed Gupta after his superannuation at the end of this month.Gupta's appointment, though, has come under judicial scrutiny. While hearing a public interest litigation challenging the decision to entrust Gupta with the additional charge of chief secretary despite three corruption-related FIRs pending against him, the Himachal Pradesh high court last week issued notices to the state govt, the Centre and Gupta.The petitioner argued that maintaining integrity in senior administrative appointments was of paramount importance and claimed that officers holding key constitutional and administrative positions must possess impeccable credentials.The PIL stated that integrity should be valued even above competence for such appointments. The matter will come up for hearing before the high court on July 21.MSID:: 131328424 413 |