Bureaucrat can't be victimized for crtiticising govt: SC

New Delhi: A bureaucrat cannot be victimized for criticising Government before a judicial forum, as it does not amount to service misconduct, the Supreme Court has said while slapping a fine of Rs. 5 lakh on Centre and UP government forharassing an IAS officer who approached it on the black money issue.

Hon’ble Justice A K Sikri

“The right to judicial remedies for the redressal of either personal or public grievances is a constitutional right of the subjects (both citizensand non-citizens) of this country. Employees of the State cannot become members of a different and inferior class to whom such right is not available,” the bench headed by justice J Chelameswar said.
The bench, also comprising Justice A K Sikri said it is “astounding” that Centre and the state government consider that a complaint to theapex court of executive malfeasance causing debilitating economicand security concerns for the country amounts to inappropriate conduct for a civil servant.
“We are at a loss to comprehend how the filing of the writ petitioncontaining allegations that the Government of India is lax in discharging its constitutional obligations of establishing the rule of law can be said to amount to either failure to maintain absolute integrityand devotion to duty or of indulging in conduct unbecoming of a member of the service,” the bench said.
The bench said that the Constitution declares India as a sovereign democratic Republic and “The requirement of such democratic republic is that every action of the State is to be informed with reason. State is not a hierarchy of regressively genuflecting coterie of bureaucracy.”