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IAS Parampal Kaur Sidhu: Lok Sabha elections 2024 are going on in India. In which the third phase of voting was also completed on Tuesday, May 7. In this election, many senior officials are also contesting as independent candidates while many are joining the party. Meanwhile, BJP has made IAS officer Parampal Kaur Sidhu its candidate from Bathinda Lok Sabha seat of Punjab. However, the Punjab government has created a big problem for him to contest the elections.
what is the whole matter
Parampal Kaur is a 2011 batch IAS officer. Last month he had sought approval from the Center for VRS. He joined BJP on April 11 after getting approval from the Centre.
The next day, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that the state government had not accepted his resignation. After this, a letter has been sent to Parampal Kaur Sidhu on behalf of the State Personnel Department.
The letter said, you are taking VRS to take care of your 81-year-old mother as her health is not good and both your father and your younger brother passed away a few years ago. But you have been participating in political activities for the last several days and are giving wrong reasons for taking VRS.
Punjab government has said in its letter that there are 231 posts for IAS in the state but currently only 192 officers are working. For this reason many officers have been given various responsibilities. Therefore the State Government has not yet waived the notice period of three months required under Rule 16(2) and has not issued any order regarding approval of VRS.
The government has made it clear that Parampal Kaur cannot be relieved from service. Therefore, he should immediately return to his work otherwise appropriate action will be taken against him.
What are the service rules?
Under the Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, central government officers and employees are also barred from contesting elections and participating in any political activity. Besides, his family members have also been banned from taking part in political activities. Even if this happens, the government employee will have to inform the government. The same rules apply to state government employees also.
According to the rules, no government employee can campaign for any political person. Many government employees cannot even attend political rallies. If his duty is in a political rally, he can neither give a speech, nor raise slogans, nor hoist the party flag there.
Any government employee can contest elections only if he has resigned from the post or has retired. However, sometimes there are exceptions. Officials have been seen taking advantage of loopholes in the rules to contest elections.
So what is the solution?
No government officer or employee can contest elections while holding office. It is mandatory for any employee to resign to contest elections or he can contest elections only after retirement.
However, sometimes the court gives permission to contest elections even after continuing in office. Last year, Rajasthan High Court had given permission to a government doctor named Deepak Khokhra to contest the assembly elections. The High Court also said that if Deepak loses the elections, he can join duty again. However, Deepak Khokhra lost this election.
A few years ago a petition was filed in the Supreme Court. It was demanded that no government officer or employee should be allowed to contest elections immediately after retirement or resignation. There should be some difference between retirement or resignation and contesting elections. But the Supreme Court rejected this petition.