fighttojustice

Smart move towards making India corruption free!!! Modi Government sacked top 12 revenue officers involved in corruption, sexual harassment, extortion, bribery and other illegal cases. Topping the list is a 1989-batch IRS officer posted as Commissioner (Appeal) in Noida, SK Srivastava, who has been facing serious charges of sexually harassing two women officers of the same department. Yet another high rank officer that topped the list is Ashok Agarwal – the Joint Commissioner of I-T and former Deputy Director of Enforcement Directorate. Agarwal was also accused under several illegal charges of corruption and extortion. Homi Rajvansh, B.B. Rajendra Prasad, Ajoy Kumar Singh, Alok Kumar Mitra, B. Arulappa, Chander Saini Bharti, Andasu Ravindar, Vivek Batra, Swetabh Suman and Ram Kumar Bhargava are the remaining officers who were ordered to take up compulsory retirement. Modi Govt under the Financial Ministry of Nirmala Sitharaman invoked Fundamental Rule 56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972, to show the exit door to these twelve officials. This fundamental rule was rarely used in the past, but was immediately revised after the Modi Government came into the action for the very first time in May 2014. Mr. Prime Minister revised the law to punish government servants whose performance was not up to the mark. This is a historic move by PMO to put an end to corruption and set an example to all other corrupt officers in the system. Sources close to the Finance Ministry say that this is just the beginning and sooner or later many other government officials will face the heat. Original Source - https://fighttojustice.hatenablog.com/entry/2019/06/15/Modi_Govt_forcibly_retires_twelve_high_rank_tax_officers_over_charges_of_corruption?_ga=2.73015187.1413346447.1560595172-241851757.1560595172

Right after taking up the job of Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman have asked 12 top tax officers to take up compulsory retirement. The list had some of the big names like Ashok Agarwal – Joint Commissioner of I-T and former Deputy Director of Enforcement Directorate, SK Srivastava – Commissioner (Appeal, Noida) and Homi Rajvansh – an official of the Revenue Service. Ashok Agarwal faced allegations of corruption and extortion. The CBI had accused him of owning assets worth more than 12 crore disproportionate to his income. Homi Rajvansh was a corrupt Revenue Service official and was arrested for acquiring movable and immovable assets worth Rs. 3.17 crore. On the other side, SK Srivastava, a Revenue Service official of the 1989 batch was accused of serious allegations for sexually harassing two women officials. Mr. Srivastava was held in civil imprisonment of 15 days for his false remarks against former chairman and members of the Central Board of Direct Taxes. The remaining nine officials were also under scanner for severe allegations ranging from extortion to bribery and sexual harassment. Of the total 12 officials, eight of them are currently being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation on serious corruption charges. As per reports, this is the first time that a government has taken such a drastic step against top officials accused of corruption and malpractice. All these officers were subjected to forceful retirement under Rule 56 by the Finance Ministry. Many people called this move a part of clean-up drive of the Modi Sarkar 2.0. Original Source - https://fighttojustice.weebly.com/blog/big-move-by-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman-12-top-tax-officers-dismissed-from-service

Recently, the Ministry of Finance forced compulsory retirement on 12 senior IT officers, including SK Srivastava, Ashok Agarwal, Homi Rajvansh, Alok Kumar Mitra, and B.B. Rajendra Prasad amid allegations of corruption, extortion, and professional misconduct. Under Rule 56 of the General Financial Rules (GFRs), the Govt. took this significant step in the public interest and issued a stern warning on zero tolerance for bribery and fraud within the bureaucracy. Of course, the perpetrators must be punished while the dismissal of these officials would certainly deter others from committing unethical activities in the future. However, bribery, disproportionate assets, and abuse of power can be found in every corner of the IT Department nowadays and the root cause for that might lies with the searches as well as seizures. These are severe instruments to enforce the law and leads towards the misuse of power as well as harassment on the taxpayers, including those who missed the deadlines due to some genuine reasons. Such instruments create an unfavourable atmosphere in terms of a non-adversarial tax regime and put uncertainty over individual taxpayers as well as corporate players. Undoubtedly, enforcement of the law is crucial, however, some of the safeguards must be provided within the context of law to ensure non-discretionary actions from the Govt. officers. However, in this digital era, we can build an appropriate system for Income Tax Filing & Returns by utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as big-data analytics to prevent tax avoidance and tax evasion. Already, the Modi Govt. implemented GST which enables easier tax payments and refund claims for any taxpayer by successfully eliminating interactions between tax officers and taxpayers. As corruption is an everyday practice in India, only the transparent financial operations might put an end to it in a more effective manner. Original Source - https://fighttojustice.wordpress.com/2019/06/15/fight-against-corruption-the-role-of-advent-technology/

Within a few days of taking charge as the first full-time Finance Minister of India, Nirmala Sitharaman took the ground-breaking administrative step and forced 12 senior income tax officers on the basis of corruption and professional misbehavior. The 56-year-old officer — SK Srivastava who made “unsubstantiated and malicious” allegations against NDTV and Ex-Finance Minister P Chidambaram is among these people who were made to retire.

 

Previously, the 1989-batch IAS officer has been served with a charge sheet comprised of seven charges and an official inquiry was also ordered. The list of charges that filed on May 23, included sexual harassment allegations against 2 women colleagues from the Department of Revenue Service and putting allegations against the top officials of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT).

 

As per the reliable sources, he has filed a petition in the court through Jai Narayan Nishad — a former Member of Parliament and claimed that the two women officers were involved in corruption and prostitution. Moreover, he used his official position to pressurize the senior officials to initiate investigation against them as well as to defer the proceedings against him.

 

A couple of years ago, he approached the UPSC (Union Public Service Commission) with the request of delaying the promotion of his batchmates as well as his juniors, as a consequence, the promotion of 3 batches has been held up. Along with these allegations, the officer also holds around 75 petitions against him in the Central Administrative Tribunal, the High Court and Supreme Court. Apart from Srivastava, the list also includes Ashok Agarwal, Homi Rajvansh, and BB Rajendra Prasad.

 

Original Source - https://medium.com/@meyermwfactor/the-reason-behind-showing-exit-door-to-sk-srivastava-6ec70cbcc64c

On June 11, 2019, the Government under the financial ministry of Nirmala Sitharaman asked Income Tax Commissioner S K Srivastava to voluntarily take up retirement along with few other 12 high profile members of the IT department.

 

S K Srivastava was one of the prime accused in several cases involving fraud, extortion and forging, corruption, sexual harassment and much more. He was also accused of sexually harassing two women officers of the Revenue Service.

 

This groundbreaking action enforced by the Narendra Modi-led NDA Government was a strong step towards eliminating corruption and cleaning up the system. By implementing this strict action, the government has sent a strong message indicating – no matter how high profile post a government official holds, if he is corrupt then he will be dismissed.

 

Besides S K Srivastava, the list also included Ashok Agarwal, Joint Commissioner of IT who was under CBI’s scanner on corruption allegations and was suspended from 1999 to 2014. Alok Kumar Mitra, Chander Saini Bharti, Andasu Ravindar, Vivek Batra, Swetabh Suman and Ram Kumar Bhargava are a few other names that were on the list.

 

Narendra Modi-led NDA government probed all these officers to retire on the grounds of the following rules:

 

-          56(j) of Central Civil Services (Pension) Rules, 1972 which clearly says that “the performance of a government official who has turned 50 or 55 or has completed 30 years of service (whichever is earlier,) is being reviewed to ascertain if he/she is liable for compulsory retirement.”

 

This rule to punish government servant for their under performance or force them to accept voluntary retirement was revised immediately after the Modi Government came to power in May 2014 for the very first time. 

 

Original Source - Major crackdown by Modi government: S K Srivastava among 12 otherasked to retired