CORRECTING HISTORIC ERRORS

A Whatsapp message is under circulation as below:

“DPC : During informal meeting with Office Bearers of AIASCT at Bengaluru during this week, Chairman and Member ( P & A) spelt out their mind that, they are determined to complete the DPC exercise on a fast track basis.

They are fully cognisant of the regional disparities within C Ex Cadre and also disparity with Customs Officers.

However, now is not the time to rectify all these legacy errors.

Time will solve them.

Task on hand is to complete the DPC before end of October.

Let's all hope for a Mega Deepavali Gift.”

The message does not indicate the person or from which source it is gathered. However, the glee with which it announces that nothing would be done now and a Deepavgali Gift could be expected would enable one to guess the source of the message.

In the previous blog PRESS HERE FOR THE BLOG I had outlined the reason for a momentous decision of the CEC of the AIASCT remaining un-executed.

Some persons who went through the OA filed by the 7 + 1 Units called me to find out the lacunae in the OAs. I deliberately did not want to give the details in that blog since I felt that we need not be after all assisting the admin with the fault lines therein. However, since I was requested, I am outlining them in brief. CLICK HERE TO VIEW THAT OA

The fault lines in the OA filed by the 7 + 1 Units of AIASCT:

1. The Units have claimed that they are Associations recognized as per Rules. They are not Associations but only units. Recognition is granted only to AIASCT at the apex level and therefore it is a mis representation of facts that the administration will make use of.
2. Tuticorin is only a part of Trichy unit and is not a separate unit of the AIASCT as such. Because of this lacunae, they have not mentioned the name of the Unit in their name and have mis represented as AIASCT itself, which will also be pointed out by the administration.
3. The OA says that the current RR of Superintendents is dated 1986. It is factually incorrect since the current RR for Superintendents is dated 2019 and this is a fatal error, which can doom the case.
4. The OA (para 17, etc) deals with issues concerning the DR and PR of the IRS which will adversely impact the proceedings because the fundamental issue to be addressed is regarding zonal imbalances and disparities and inequality between the different zones at the entry level of Group A.
5. What is sought to be quashed in the OA is the AISL issued in 2011 which will directly attract laches when the OA is being filed in 2022.
6. The applicants have not sighted a single representation made to the administration on the issue to prove before the Tribunal that they have exhausted all other remedies.
7. That the subject matter has not been taken up in litigation in any other forum is a misdeclaration in respect of one of the applicants.
8. The demand to rework the AISL based on All India merit list will attract laches and also is not supported by law since selection was based on zonal merit. Many of those who would have got more merit on the basis of All India merit would not have been selected and hence this would not be legally enforceable.

Now the next question is what to do when the administration says that it all historical and cannot be corrected.

Our answer is that though it is historical, it is imperative to correct it NOW because the RR for cadre of Superintendent has been revised in 2019 making the post of Inspector only a probationary post to the Superintendent post.

Stagnation cannot be better defined than by the MACP scheme.

Thus, our AIASCT has clearly been moving in the direction from 2017.

Yes, upto 2017, the Association was under the control of those who did not really want to address the issue and get it settled.

But from 2017 onwards, we have consciously and carefully built up our case step by step, brick by brick.

The outcome is the draft OA that has been placed before our CEC by Com. Arun Zachariah of Kerala. CLICK HERE FOR THE DRAFT OA PROPOSED TO CEC OF AIASCT Though the CEC is yet to finalise the draft, since it is a matter concerning the entire cadre I do not think it will be wrong on my part to reveal it.  Members who feel some points could be added can also make suggestions for the consideration of the CEC.

However, this OA can be passed in the CEC only if the 7 +1 Units decide to withdraw their OA, filed without the consent or approval of the AIASCT (i.e the CEC or its GB). This is because there cannot be different OAs on the same issue with divergent points by different parties and particularly when one set of parties are part of the other party.

The delay by the units in withdrawing their OAs will only delay the process of the AIASCT in finalizing their OA and filing it and consequently, the zones that stand to gain by the current method of drawing AISL and conducting DPC, ie, the Customs and Delhi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Gujarat and Bangalore alone will stand to gain.

Bangalore is better placed in the current dispensation. Further the SG who is also from that zone is himself in Sl.No. 851 of the Draft AISL. In the list after eliminating those who have retired, he comes in Sl. No. 359. But if the method proposed in the OA under consideration by the CEC as suggested by Com. Arun is adopted, the SG goes to Sl.No. 737 (after eliminating those who have retired). Yet, he has stood by the process. The Bangalore unit has also maintained neutrality to enable fairness and equity to be achieved.  The cadre has to give a big salute to the SG and his Unit.

But other units which stand to benefit as per the current scheme of things cannot be expected to allow the CEC of the AIASCT to decide on the proposed OA until the 7 + 1 Units withdraw their independent OA.

These units have been told that even if they have doubts that the AIASCT OA may not be filed or could be delayed, they can continue with their OA under the name of individuals and withdraw the individual OAs after the AIASCT OA is filed and admitted and until then the Units should withdraw from the OAs.

The Units, Mumbai, Aurangabad, Nashik, Pune, Chennai, Salem, Madurai and Tuticorin (which is not a unit by itself but only a part of Trichy unit) have not yet communicated their withdrawal and hence, the fate of the cadre, its ambition and cry for equity and fairness hangs by a thin thread.