CONFUSION PREVAILS ON MEENA APPOINTMENT TO RPSC, WHILE VEENU’S RERA BERTH IS ‘SAFE’!

Jaipur: In the case of IAS Kailash Chand Meena, who was made a member of RPSC, DoP mistake has created a confusion. According to the records of DoP, he was Secretary LSG till 13th October, whereas as per the rules, he was considered deemed retired on 9th October after joining the RPSC.

The rule in this regard is that “A member who, on the date of his appointment to the commission, was in the services of the government, shall be deemed to have retired from service, with effect from the date and takes over as member of the Commission.”

It is clear that Meena neither wanted to take VRS nor wanted to resign. Earlier, similar thing had happened in the case of Deepak Upreti. He took charge as Chairman of RPSC on 23 July 2018 and was considered retired from the same day. Although his retirement was to take place on October 15, 2018; similarly, Meena’s retirement would also have been in July 2024.

When DOP’s mistake was exposed in First India News Channel on Friday evening, then 5 days later DOP declared Meena as retired on 13th October in its records. But now the controversy is regarding the time when Meena took charge of RPSC in Ajmer. On 9 October, the Election Commission had announced the elections at around 12 noon. Then the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) was immediately implemented. Thus, there is discussion whether Meena was able to take charge by then or not?

The case of Senior IAS Veenu Gupta is a little different. She can join as RERA Chairman once she retires from her position. As such her VRS would soon be accepted by the state government and the model code of conduct (MCC) will not have any effect on it since the orders in this regard predates the MCC and thus she will join immediately after. Moreover, her appointment as RERA Chairman is not a political order, rather was a decision of the committee formed under Justice of Rajasthan High Court and has LSG Secretary and Law Secretary as members.