To sign or not to sign

...by the way

 

To sign or not to sign

It is a well-known fact that Ministers, especially Chief Ministers, verbally order their principal secretaries or private secretaries to do most of their administrative work. It is also well-known that whenever a file comes from a Ministers’ office for a favour, a yellow slip is tagged with a pencil note. The note helps the Minister avoid any query under the right to information or any investigation. Thus, when Mayawati was the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Vijay Singh, an IPS officer who was her secretary, used to send a file with his signature stating that the Chief Minister had given her approval to the matter under consideration. Akhilesh Yaday, the present Chief Minister continued this practice, with his Secretary Anita Singh, a 1990 batch IAS officer, signing on files on his behalf. All was well until Amitabh Thakur an IPS officer of 1992 the batch, belled the cat. Thakur challenged the practice of secretaries in the Chief Minister’s office signing such files. Thakur filed a petition in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, alleging that one of his files had been signed by Anita Singh instead of the Chief Minister. In his appeal, Thakur argued that Mulayam Singh Yadav and other Chief Ministers of UP used to sign the files of officers themselves. The issue that has now arisen before the High Court is whether a secretary can sign files on behalf...READ MORE