SUSPENDED OFFICERS DON'T CRY: The Aftermath

So the corrupt officer who was apparently asking for too much got caught eventually and..... hang on, you do know how it happened right??

No.... well take a look at the previous post 

Moving on so by now you know that a corrupt officer Mr X was caught in a trap set by the Anti-Corruption department because he didn't stipulate to the previously agreed bribe amount and tried to extract more.

Anyway, people say that Mr.X was crying like a baby in front of the team and was then taken to custody immediately. He didn't make bail the very next day and it was imperative that he made bail in the next 72 hours because according to the Civil Service rules of the state, that officer automatically gets terminated if he/she spends 3 or more nights in jail. So eventually the case was filed, he got terminated as he couldn't make bail and suddenly we saw Mr.X in a whole world of mess.

At this point some of you might feel, "he had it coming" and "more power to the anti corruption department",but please hold on to your horses. In India the judiciary has a peculiar motto "Innocent until proven guilty", the idea behind it is that its better to let go 10 perpetrators than punish an innocent bloke. This is not technically and entirely justifiable but when you put into perspective the massive population of the country where there are an entire plethora of broken laws and crimes being committed than this ideology may not eliminate all the bad apples but won't hurt the good ones too.

So the court proceedings started in the District Sessions court where Mr.X got a fancy advocate because ....why not. The Anti corruption team had the evidences and the witnesses, including the contractor who Mr. X tried to fleece (read the  previous post ).

so all in all a solid front was put forward with all the witness corroborating the chain of events leading to Mr. X's indictment. Mr.X had realised that things don't seem that bright for him , so as soon as the District Sessions court ruled it against him, he was quick in action to get a stay on his sentence. So the law clock was reset and all these things have to be presented against in front of the High Court.

At this point one needs to understand that how the convoluted pattern of the law favored the alleged and it took almost 2 years for the District Sessions Court to hold him accountable which had given Mr.X the opportunity to gauge the direction of the judgement and take a pre-emptive action by getting a stay order. Although X is not out of the woods yet but he is getting enough leeway to fight for another day and in the judicial world , one day means more than just a day.

PC(Google Images)

So by this time Mr.X has had his resources drained by a considerable amount with no hopes of getting his name cleared as of now. But he has one advantage over the Anti Corruption department,yes I said advantage. The terminated Mr.X has literally no skills, talents or the fortitude to succeed anywhere else through sheer qualifications hence a government job is his only known abode. So for him getting reinstated is not just a matter of pride and dignity but a matter of life and death. No matter how evil of a government officer he is, he still holds responsibility of a father and a husband so for him there is just no other option but to fight till the end whereas the Anti Corruption department is doing a menial daily job and the witnesses have better things to do then go through the ordeal for testifying against a culprit twice.

So the High Court proceedings started and by this timne Mr.X had mended his way with the contractor(the prime witness), the Anti-Corruption department and his parent department as well. The proceedings were stretched at first, but ultimately the delay was going to drain his hard-bribe-earned money incessantly. Eventually the case ultimately grew weak because with time it had to, and the high court gave the judgement this time in favour of Mr.X to get reinstated.

At this point you might be thinking that how could our justice system let such a simple, open and shut case get completely overturned letting a corrupt officer, caught red-handed simply walk away. Well trust me this is absolutely true and some seasoned government officials could vouch for the fact that this incoming-outgoing is a part of being an officer.

PC( Google Images)

Now you must be wondering that with the High Court order in his hand  everything is back to normal. Mr.X thought so too, he was elated with the judgement and informed everyone in our department that he's going to be back soon. However there was one last twist in this story, just because you have a High Court order doesn't mean that the Government would take swift and necessary action to reinstate you and pay you back. No, because the people who would carry out the formality of putting up a letter, getting it signed by the higher officials and then type a whole new order for you , are actually just like Mr.X; the only difference being , they haven't been touched till now.

The excitement and happiness which Mr.X had, could be seen draining away with each of his failed visit. The staff at the ministry were quite blatantly ignoring him and telling him to come back later. Mr.X knew the drill so offered a hefty sum for their efforts, but sometimes people just like to watch you squeal don't they. Its just the sweetest desires of every person to see someone implore and beg for something ,who they think totally deserve it. Meanwhile the people from our department were teasing him that, maybe the High Court order had a spelling mistake or you took it the wrong department. Its ok to feel for Mr.X a bit, after all in the eyes of the law he was an innocent citizen who deserved his seat back. One fine day Mr.X went to the clerk at the ministry and straight up asked him if he was going to get his job done or not, the clerk again tried procrastinating and on hearing it he opened the office's window and was about to jump from the 6th floor of the building. He announced to the entire staff that this clerk is to be held responsible for everything that happens from now on, and.... it worked. People rushed to get him off the window and calmed him down. Offered him some water and then later that day Mr.X was given the coveted order he so vehemently desired.
That I believe was the most apt punishment which Mr.X desired, not to undermine the 4-5 years of the legal tussle but there is something about the finish line in sight. It just hurts too much to lose so much over so little.

So anyway last year Mr.X finally got reinstated and fortunately I was present at the Head office at that time. I saw a calm, shy and soft spoken man grinning at times who was just happy, finally. For a moment I thought that maybe justice was served finally and that a responsible and honest officer came out of the end of all this.

Three days later he was back at his usual tone and wit, demanded a transfer to a district of his choice and the contractors are complaining to the head office that Mr.X is trying to extract every penny worth of his ordeal which he so fittingly deserved. 

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GOVERNMENT OFFICERS' FORMALITY- THE CONFIDENTIAL REPORT

The dreaded time (PC: Google Images)

Its that time of the year now, well that time has already passed if you are working in the private sector. Its Self-Appraisal time, yes that time of the year again when you are asked as to what you did and didn’t so as to remind you again of the insult you are to the organization you work for. Basically its all about giving you a pre-decided raise despite your diligent and painstaking efforts as an employee by first disparaging you and then handing that raise to patronize you by showing how magnanimous of a management there is in place. That’s how it works in the private/corporate sector atleast. In the Government sector, things are a bit different, people don’t really care about it but see it as an opportunity to know about the status of their peers and what’s the ROI on their flattery, showered on their seniors.

Earlier it used to be completely confidential, hence you actually never know as to what irked or pleased your immediate bosses and hence there is no way for you to be absolutely sure. A lot of the malpractices that had crept in to the system as a result and it made the process just a means to favor the sycophants and screw the hardworking employees. Apart from that, I was told by some senior officers that true nature of biased office politics, favoritism and casteism plays a major role in the overall performance review of the employee. The Confidential report is never given to the concerned employee and the only copy stays with the Establishment section( the Human Resources for all you corporate snoots). So you can give your blood, sweat and tears but still come up short because you didn’t arrange for a drink for your senior officer, or you didn’t greet him or a million other tiny little things. Although there is no appraisal in terms of salary as such in the government sector whether you are extraordinary in your assigned work or not but there is a small little column that asks for recommendation for transfers. Now there is only one thing that the Government employees dread and that is getting transferred, because its quite pragmatically challenging for the family to shift your entire lives to a new city. In contrast you might be demanding a transfer to your familiar place as well and that again would be largely decided by your confidential report. Since promotions are based entirely on the seniority (date of joining equals experience equals seniority) and the discretion of the Promotions committee (the same people who have a lot to do with your Confidential report), but suddenly you might find that your letter from the Ministry giving you the good news of your promotion, is just buried under some other files and people beneath you in seniority are getting promoted. Anyway to put an end to favoritism and make the evaluation system more transparent the government deployed the new Government officer Evaluation and Appraisal report system.

So now apparently this system is supposed to be more transparent and unbiased which it actually is but that doesn’t change those parochial minds from speaking their minds. I was lucky enough to be joining at a time when this process was just put into place so I got to witness it in the truest sense. Now there was a lot of ambiguity in this process because a lot of people thought that this is just a new format but the underlying principle of confidentiality would remain the same. That’s where they were wrong, as it backfired in one particular case which cascaded into quite a few later. You see just because you changed the overall format of the paper it doesn’t mean that senior officers will suddenly become cautious, hence they presumed that the “Confidentiality” clause will remain unchanged unfortunately after many discussions and meetings, one fine day the employees started getting their respective appraisal reports.

This caused a havoc because suddenly they are given an insight into a world that was totally unknown to them. Within a matter of days 3 people showed up to our unaware Officer in Charge and caught him off guard. They slammed their reports on his table asking “Why is it that someone else who is not even showing upto work gets a higher grade in terms of accountability, hardwork and dedication. Did I ever ask for any long holidays or showed up late to work?”

PC( Google Images )

The officer in charge was totally appalled and made the situation even funnier by asking, “Who are you?” ( I think I burst out laughing when I heard that). The disgruntled employee says “If you can’t even remember my name when I am in front of you, then how did you grade my work?”. This went on with a bunch of other employees as well a few employees even went ahead and filed an official discriminatory complaint against the senior officials, which though amounted to nothing still managed to scare the senior management a lot. When the dust settled they learnt one thing that this new system needs to be dealt with in a different manner now and hence they decided that employees like me who are Gazetted officers won’t be handed their final assessed reports. But out of nowhere a new Government Resolution enabled us to get a copy of our final reports. So at the end of the it was people like me who actually got the benefit of the earlier ruckus and got a good and sensible assessment. Though as I mentioned earlier it doesn’t amount to anything but it certainly took the gun out of the senior management which trust me is a huge step in being even remotely just and fair in the current Government system.

This year we are going through that process again and I have submitted my own appraisal for the senior managements’ assessment, but that Officer-in-Charge, who was at the centre of this mess , has been stripped down of his review rights and now its on to the direct supervisory officers like me to grade those workers.

Do comment and follow for more insights of being a Government officer. Here's a link to my other entries-

The Election Duty

The New Culture of Godmen

A Prayer for Christchurch

History sheeter

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