IAS body backs Parakh, seeks Prez’s intervention

The association resolved to appeal to the honourable President of India to intervene and ensure an appropriate environment and to provide adequate safeguards for serving and retired civil servants.

The Andhra Pradesh Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Association has resolved to extend full-fledged and unstinted support to PC Parakh, who is highly regarded among his peers, and expressed its deep anguish on account of the manner in which he has been implicated in a criminal case leaving aside the concerned political executive. The Association, in its extraordinary general body meeting held here on Monday to discuss the deteriorating civil services morale and the threat to good governance arising out of biased criminal investigations by the CBI, has approved five resolutions. It said that targeting of senior servants under the lens of criminal intent strikes at the root of good governance especially, when officers with impeccable track record are implicated in criminal cases excluding the counterpart political executive, will only lead to policy and decision making paralysis at all levels of government.

The association resolved to appeal the honourable President of India to intervene and ensure an appropriate environment and to provide adequate safeguards for serving and retired civil servants, to perform their legitimate duties. The association recommended appropriate amendments to section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, to extend the requirement of prior sanction in respect of retired officers for any cognizance to be taken by court, amend section 197 of the Cr PC to clarify that the scope of this section extends to accusations of criminal conspiracy and criminal breach of trust as well and this is required in view of recent tendency by CBI to bypass the prior sanction requirement and charge officers by invoking IPC sections dealing with criminal conspiracy (sec.120B) and criminal breach of trust (sec.409).