NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Wednesday sought assistance of solicitor general Tushar Mehta in resolving the grievance of Indian Forest Service officers against their performance appraisal reports (PARs) being written by IAS officers as per the last June office order issued by Madhya Pradesh government.
A bench of Justices B R Gavai and K Vinod Chandran was dealing with a petition filed by Gaurav Bansal who has challenged the state’s new mechanism for PAR of IFS officers that changed the PAR authority from divisional forest officers (DFOs) to Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF). IFS officers are objecting to their PARs being written by non-forest officers. Justice Gavai said IAS officers tend to boss over IFS officers and there is always a tussle between these two cadres. The IFS officers feel that the IAS officers do not know the intricacies of the forest conservation and wildlife protection steps taken by them and hence their performance appraisal by the IAS officers is bound to be error prone.
“It should be resolved,” the bench said. Mehta said he will deliberate on the issue and discuss with the stakeholders but hinted that the administrative hierarchy is well established and who would write which officer’s PAR is provided for.
The SC had earlier taken exception to the June 29, 2024, office order and warned that if it is not withdrawn then it may initiate contempt proceedings for issuance of the order in violation of the SC’s orders.
MP IFS Association had written a protest letter to CM Mohan Yadav highlighting the critical role played by forest service officials in wildlife and forest conservation and argued that the new PAR mechanism would demoralise these officers.
The IAS officers supported the new mechanism saying four other biodiversity rich states – Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra and Rajasthan – have already implemented similar rules.