Ramesh Mehta
Being a cultural activist and one who has served J&K Academy of Art, Culture and languages in various capacities from June,1973 to December, 2005, I am obliged to write this open letter to invite your kind attention as President of JKAACL to the anomalies in the ‘Service Recruitment Rules’ , governing appointments in the Academy of Art, Culture and languages, as notified vide Academy Order No.22 of 2007 dated: 07-04-2007.
In the said rules, under the head “Method of Recruitment”, various qualifications have been prescribed for direct recruitment as also promotion for all the posts borne on Academy cadres, barring Secretary and Financial Advisor of the Academy. In the column under “Method of Recruitment” in the said rules for the posts of Secretary and Financial Advisor, it is provided that they “shall be appointed by the President in consultation with the government of Jammu and Kashmir” and that they “shall hold office for such period and on such terms and conditions as the President may from time to time determine.”
This is a mere reproduction of Section 8(a) and 10 (a) of SRO 340 dated 14th August, 1963. This provision is silent to the extent of requirement of educational qualifications, professional qualifications, age of the prospective candidate, administrative experience etc. and provision for deputation from outside the Academy or vice-versa etc. etc. As such these provisions are deterimental to the career progression of Academy employees who reach the highest position in various cadres on the basis of their merit, suitability and excellent service record. To my knowledge, I was the only directely recruited in service officer who was, for the first time, appointed to the post of Secretary of the Academy on the basis of seniority, suitability and merit in the year 2003. Lately, President and the government have started constituting Search Committess for the appointment of Secretary in the Academy. These Search Committees, in absence of laid down norms/ guidelines, again adopt yardsticks, lacking force of law, to their liking, arguably arbitrarily, to favour their favourite candidates.
You may please agree with me that the framers of Recruitment Rules gave little consideration to the fact that in 1963 Academy was in its infancy and was a very small organisation as compared to now. At that time post of Secreatry Academy was equivalent in position to that of a Deputy Secretary to Government which is no more the case now. As of now Academy has got three posts of Additional Secretaries besides posts equivalent to stature of Deputy Secretary in other cadres,whereas in 1963 there was none of these posts in place.
Further, there is a practice of appointing the Administrative Secretary, Finance Department, government of J&K, as Financial Advisor of the Academy ignoring the fact that as per SRO 340 of 1963, Financial Advisor of the Academy has to be lower in stature to that of the Secretary of the Academy. Presently instead of Financial Advisor reporting to the Secretary of the Academy, it is the Secretary Academy which is obliged to call on the Financial Advisor in his office chamber at civil Secretariat, whenever a need arises.This has led to Financial Advisor becoming a super boss but a dormant functionary of the Academy. Being far senior to the Secretary Academy, he fails to perform his legitimate duties for obvious reasons. Instead of providing day to day assistance in the Account and Administrative matters to the Secretary Academy, his job is presently limited to presiding over the Finance Committee meetings and tender his opinion on the cases referred to him by the President/ Secretary of the Academy, from time to time, which seldom cross the one dozen mark in a given year. One point of reference could be that he has never bothered to see that accounts of the Academy are audited by the Chartered Accountant every year as laid down in SRO 340.
It is pertinent to mention here that in the past, Presidents have, at times, used these powers, vested in them by SRO 340 of 1963, arbitrarily. So much so that in 1995, an untrained Drama Director was appointed as Secretary Academy over the head of a NSD pass out Drama Director occupying the poisiton of Additional Secretary in the Academy and another NSD pass out holding the post of Drama Instructor in the Academy. This arbitrary appointment led one of the Additional Secretaries to approach the High Court of J&K for securing his right. The case was initially stayed which was subsequently revoked and then the case was allowed by the authorities of the Academy to wilfully drag on till the retirement of the petitioner so as to make it in fructuous. However, the following observations made by the Hon’ble High Court in the matter of SWP No. 1188/1996 titled Kavi Rattan Sharma Vrs. State and others merit your kind attention. They read as under :
1. “It is well settled that a single person cannot be allowed to make appointments to such high offices without the process of consultation or without laying down any norms/ guidelines. There are no such high offices where no norms for appointment are not been laid out”
The appointment of the Secretary of the Academy made in 2015 make these observations look true and farsighted ones. It is, therefore, interesting to note that as to how the recommendations of the Search Committee are accepted/ rejected by the Presidents of the Academy on their whims and fancies.
As a concerned citizen, I, therefore, most humbly request your august self to please consider :
a) Putting in place a system for appointment of the senior most Additional Secretary of JKAACL as Secretary of the JKAACL on the basis of seniority, suitability and merit and appointment of full time Financial Advisor from within the Academy Service, who should always be available to the Secretary Academy for the discharge of his bonafide duties. and/ Or
b) In the alternative, in view of the observations made by the Hon’ble High Court referred to hereinabove, norms/ guidelines for the appointment of Secretary/ Financial Advisor in the JKAACL may be laid down forthwith, so as to safeguard the interests of this eminent cultural institution besides interest of the Officers serving at senior most positions in the Academy.
(The author is former Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, )
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