In a major relief to senior Haryana bureaucrat Ashok Khemka, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday ordered to expunge the ‘adverse’ remarks made by Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal in his annual performance appraisal report 2016-17, after he moved the court for its removal in January.

Khemka, who is the principal secretary of the Haryana sports department, in his plea had asked the court to expunge the remarks made by the CM in his Annual Confidential Report (ACR) as it hampered his chances of elevation to a higher level.

In Khemka’s ACR report of 2016-17, chief secretary DS Dhesi had rated him 8.22 out of 10. The file was then sent to sports and youth affairs minister Anil Vij, who on June 27, 2017 awarded Khemka a stellar rating of 9.92 out of 10 for “overall grading on attributes”.
 

Vij had remarked that during his 3 year stint he had worked with more than 20 IAS officers, but no one was as good as Khemka. “Ashok Khemka has shown excellent achievement under sever constraints,” Vij had observed.
 

However, on December 31, 2017 when the appraisal was further sent to chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the appraisal accepting authority, he wrote that Vij’s observations on Khema were “slightly exaggerated” and consequently struck off Vij’s ratings to gave him a rating of 9 out of 10 instead.

Though the ratings provided by CM were still outstanding, it affected Khemka’s prospects of being elevated to the post of additional secretary at the Centre. As per rules, only 20 per cent officers of a particular batch are considered for a higher scale and in such a scenario, Manohar Lal's remarks would've worked against him.

A 1991 batch senior bureaucrat, Khemka has been transferred almost 52 times in his 27-year-old career. He first moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), but after failing to be heard, he moved the High Court to get the CM’s ‘adverse remarks’ expunged and have the original rating of 9.92 awarded by Anil Vij restored.

It is pertinent to note that Khemka had earned a good rapport with Anil Vij, who himself arranged for Khemka’s transfer to the sports department, despite his run-offs with the CM on various occasions.