2

Jan

Third Extension to UP Chief Secretary Durga S Mishra

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Today’s Edition

New Delhi, 2 January 2024

Satish Misra

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Chief Secretary of the biggest state of Uttar Pradesh Durga Shankar Mishra, sending 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, was given his third extension of six months on 31 December 2023 till 30 June 2024 by the state government after the Centre put its stamp of approval creating an unprecedented record of sorts at a time when general elections are just couple of months away.  

He has thus made history for being the first IAS officer in the country to have already got three extensions as chief secretary after retirement.

The administration controlled and directed by the Prime Minister’s Office has once again proved that it cares little for well laid and long revered principles of administration and bureaucracy that bypassing and ignoring the rules of seniority creates disillusionment and forces officials of the all India services to act as yes men or yes women giving bye to principles of independence and neutrality while administering. Loyalty to the regime or should we call commitment to the leader instead of holding the country’s Constitution supreme seems to be the guiding light of the Modi government.                 

Uttar Pradesh is crucial and the BJP needs an officer here who is loyal and knows to twist and tweak the rules of the game. By this time, the general elections will be completed and a new government would have been formed at the Centre. Giving extensions to reward loyalty has been the favourite instrument of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s art of governance.  

Speculation was rife in the power circles here on whether Mishra, a retired IAS officer of the 1984 batch, will get yet another extension as chief secretary (CS) of Uttar Pradesh or the state will have a new chief secretary in the New Year.

While Rule 3 of the All India Services (Conditions of Service -Residuary Matters) Rules, 1960, gives the central government the power to relax rules and regulations in certain cases where it is satisfied that the operation of any rules made or deemed to have been made under the All India Services Act, 1951 (61 of 1951), or any regulation made under any such rule, regulating the conditions of service of persons appointed to an All India Service, causes undue hardship in any particular case, but framers of this rule had provided this provision only in exceptional and rare circumstances.

The Modi government has been using this rule very frequently as was in the case of the Enforcement Directorate Director S K Mishra who was given three extensions. The Modi government wasted to give yet another extension to Mishra but then the Supreme Court had to intervene.  Even CBI Directors were given extensions.

When frequent use of extension to officials heading crucial investigating agencies was questioned in the courts, the Modi government chose to amend laws and change rules. The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Act, 2021 and the3 Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Act, 2021 were enacted which permitted up to three one-year extensions to the tenure of Directors of the CBI and the ED.

Similarly, the Modi government amended the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997 that had barred a former TRAI chairperson to hold any office in the Government of India when it appointed Nirpendra Mishra, former TRAI chairman, as the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014. First through an ordinance and then by amending the Act itself. Nirpendra Mishra remained at the post till 2019 after which he picked up as the chairman of the temple construction committee of the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust in 2020.                

In the case of the UP Chief Secretary Mishra, he was then posted as Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, at the Centre, Mishra was repatriated to his home state on December 29, 2021, only two days before his retirement from the IAS for his appointment as the CS the same day. The move dislodged RK Tiwari, his senior, from the position in a sudden and unexpected development.

Mishra’s appointment as the chief secretary as a big surprise to many as it was believed to be the first case of its kind in the country where an IAS officer was appointed chief secretary on the cusp of retirement. A year later, the government gave him a second extension not for six months but for full one year till December 31, 2023.

Though there were quite a few senior IAS officers in the race for the top position in the bureaucracy, people in the know of things said Mishra may get the third extension in a row.

Manoj Kumar Singh, an IAS officer of the 1988 batch and currently posted as agriculture production commissioner and industrial and infrastructure development commissioner, was another strong contender for the post.

Singh would have got the chance to be appointed the next CS if Mishra had failed to get the extension. But with Mishra getting another extension of six months, the hopes of several IAS officers to become the CS dashed since most of them, barring Singh, would have retired by then.

Among the IAS officers who will be superannuated in the next six months are Mahesh Kumar Gupta, Leena Nandan, Hemant Rao, S Radha Chauhan, Amit Mohan Prasad, Kalpana Awasthi, Anita Singh and Sudhir Garg. They belong to the 1987- 1990 batches. Manoj Kumar Singh is due to retire in July 2025 while Arun Kumar Singhal, a 1987-batch IAS officer currently on Central deputation, will remain in service till April 2025.

In fact, frequent misuse of instrument of extension demoralizes the bureaucracy and forces many of them to indulge in sycophancy and resort to unfair practices.   

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