Haryana chief secretary Anurag Rastogi to get extension in service

Hindustan Times

6 hours ago

The Haryana government has decided to seek extension in service for 1990 batch IAS officer and incumbent chief secretary Anurag Rastogi, thus allowing the officer to continue to hold the charge of chief secretary from July 1.
A communication recommending extension in service will be sent to the Centre shortly. Rastogi, who was appointed as chief secretary in February this year, is due to retire on June 30.
The All-India Service (death cum retirement benefits) Rules, 1958, provide for six months of extension in service for chief secretary with the prior approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) of the central government.
Sources said that the issue of Rastogi's extension in service was discussed at the concerned levels and it was decided to grant him extension in service.
Rastogi's batchmate and Himachal Pradesh chief secretary Prabodh Saxena was also granted a six-month extension in service by the ACC of the central government in March this year, two days before he was to superannuate.
Saxena was given extension in service by the central government despite the fact that the Central Bureau of Investigation had named him an accused in the INX Media case in a chargesheet filed before a special court in 2019 after obtaining sanction for prosecution under Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Similarly, Odisha chief secretary Manoj Ahuja, also of 1990 batch, who was to retire in December 2024, was given one-year extension in service by the central government from January 1, 2025, on the recommendation of the state government.
Rules provide for a maximum of six months' extension
Rule 16 (1) of the All-India Service (death cum retirement benefits) Rules, 1958, provided that a member of the Indian Administrative Service holding the post of chief secretary to a state government may be given extension of service for a period not exceeding six months on the recommendations made by the concerned state government with full justification and in public interest, with the prior approval of the central government.
However, the central government has been giving extensions to IAS officers beyond the six-month period in relaxation of the rules. Former Uttar Pradesh chief secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, who was given three extensions by the ACC and remained chief secretary for about 30 months, was probably a standout example.
According to gradation list of Haryana IAS officers, Sudhir Rajpal of the 1990 batch is the senior most as per the inter-se seniority, followed by Sumita Misra, Anurag Rastogi, Anand Mohan Sharan and Raja Sekhar Vundru. A dispute has been raised by the 1990 batch IAS officers regarding the inter-se seniority, which remains unadjudicated.
When 1989 batch IAS officer Vivek Joshi, who was then the incumbent chief secretary, was appointed as Election Commissioner in February this year by the central government, the Nayab Singh Saini government appointed Rastogi as his successor by not following the seniority principle.
Prior to that Rastogi was also given the interim charge of chief secretary for a few days after the retirement of TVSN Prasad and before Joshi joined as chief secretary in November 2024. Rastogi was later posted as financial commissioner, revenue (FCR) and also held the important charge of additional chief secretary, finance and planning. He still holds the charge of finance and planning departments.
The office of the FCR is regarded as next only to the office of the chief secretary and the officer appointed as FCR is generally regarded as the successor of the incumbent chief secretary.