The government of Haryana sent a case involving a tussle over the seniority of several 1990-batch IAS officers to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) for advice and decision. The issue arose after three IAS officers of the 1990 batch — Mr. Ankur Gupta, Mr. Anurag Rastogi and Mr. Raja Sekhar Vundru challenged the incumbent gradation list claiming Mr. Sudhir Rajpal and Mr. Sumita Misra, who at present have been placed at a higher hierarchy should be placed below as they have been transferred from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir cadres, respectively, to Haryana.
The coveted post of Financial Commissioner Revenue (FCR) in Haryana usually goes to the senior-most IAS after the Chief Secretary, and the present Chief Secretary (CS), Mr. TVSN Prasad, is scheduled to retire on October 31st, hence any change in the seniority list could impact the selection of the next CS too as he or she is likely to be selected from the 1990 batch.
The three offended bureaucrats, in their letter to the Chief Secretary, wrote, “If an officer is transferred from one cadre to another at his request, he shall be assigned a position in the gradation list of the cadre to which he is transferred below all the officers of his category borne on that cadre who have the same year of allotment.“
The petitioning IAS officers submitted a gazette notification, dated December 30th, 1991, regarding the cadre allocation of their batch, where they say that Mr. Ankur Gupta, Mr. Anurag Rastogi, Mr. Anand Mohan Sharan and Mr. Raja Sekhar Vundru were placed above Ms. Sumita Misra in Haryana cadre, while Mr. Sudhir Rajpal was reflected in Himachal Pradesh cadre. They have also mentioned the case of IAS officer Alka Tiwari of their batch, who was placed below all other officers of the Maharashtra cadre despite getting a higher rank in the same gazette notification.
The state government has not posted anyone as FCR Home Secretary Mr. Anurag Rastogi has been the link officer for the Revenue and Disaster Management Department. Mr. Gupta is scheduled to retire on December 31st this year. Officer Rastogi is retiring on June 30th, 2025, Officer Anand Mohan Sharan on August 31st, 2025, Officer Vundru on July 31st, 2026, Mr. Rajpal on November 30th, 2026, and Mr. Misra on January 31st, 2027.
