Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, Mar 14: An inquiry by the Union Government has ruled that senior IAS officer Ashok Kumar Parmar, posted in Jammu and Kashmir, flouted civil service rules by posting public grievances and other content on social media which was “against the Government”.
The Home Ministry had started disciplinary proceedings against the 1992-batch IAS officer under Rule 8 of the All India Services (Discipline & Appeal) Rules, 1969 on November 15 last year.
Although the final report of the inquiry against Parmar, who has seven adverse entries in his ‘Annual Performance Report’ since 2020, has not been prepared yet, the MHA has held that the officer flouted All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 by posting allegedly unverified content on social media which was “against the government and its policies, achievements and functioning”.
Parmar has denied the allegations, arguing that he “only shared the legitimate contents posted on Twitter which highlights issues of public concern.
The MHA has cited five ‘controversial’ tweets posted in the WhatsApp group by the IAS officer. One of the tweets was authored by Parmar himself. A cursory reading of some of them suggests that they are vague claims of corruption in the government departments, but two of them stand out.
The MHA noted that Parmar had flouted Rule 7 of All India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968 by posting the tweets in the WhatsApp group.
The Ministry has also accused Parmar of “undue interference” in departments “beyond his domain” when he was on a visit to Poonch on April 8, 2023 as Administrative Secretary of J&K’s Administrative Reforms Inspections (ARI), Trainings and Grievances Department.
“The decisions taken/instructions issued during his visit to the District point to the undue interference in the working of various departments, which was beyond the domain assigned to his department,” the Ministry noted.
The ‘article of charges’ also accused Parmar of leaking the report of an inquiry that he had conducted in 2023 into the alleged misconduct and breach of discipline by an Indian Forest Service officer from J&K before submitting it to the General Administration Department.
The Ministry alleged that Parmar exhibited an “utter lack of professionalism in handling his role as an Inquiry Officer and failed to maintain the secrecy of the enquiry report which was his sole responsibility.”
Parmar responded: “Since I was the author of the inquiry report, it was never classified by me as secret, so the question of its secrecy is totally vague.
The IAS officer’s involvement in leaking the inquiry report is one of eight counts of alleged professional misconduct and inefficiency, meddling with other government departments and misbehaviour among others that have been slapped on the IAS officer.
The Ministry had also alleged that the IAS officer transferred 398 officials in the Jal Shakti department without authorisation.
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