Board's response to our letter on renewal of recognition

Dear friends and comrades,
The above letter dated 12.02.2019 has been received today.
We are reproducing the letter sent to the Chairman on 04.02.2019, below:

ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS (Representing the Superintendents of C.Ex & CGST) [Recognised vide CBEC Letter F. No. B 12017/10/2006-Ad IV A dated 21/01/2008] Secretary General’s Office: 6/7 A.T.D. Street, Race Course Road, Coimbatore – 641018. Email id: aisacbitc@gmail.com & manimohanr66@gmail.com

President Sanjay Srinivasan Vice Presidents:  Prabir Mukhopadhyay Sanjay Kumar  K.S. Kumar P.K. Jaishankar Iyer Ashok Bansal Secretary General  R. Manimohan (09443063989) Asst Secy General  Shishir Agnihotri Joint Secretaries: Kousik Roy D. S. Thakur Malkit Singh  Kalugasala Moorthy Sandip Panvalkar Hemant Ghosal Venkatraman Hegde S.K. Yadav Rabi N Mahapatra Core Committee: R. Chandramouli Tirthankar Pyne Ajit Kumar K.G. G. Srinath Office Secretary: K.R.Dinesh Kumar

Ref. No: 03/CBIC/2019                                            Date: 04.02.2019 To Shri. P. K. Das, Chairman, CBIC, North Block, New Delhi. Sir, Sub: Renewal of Recognition of AIACEGEO – reg. Ref: F. No. 12017/07/2017-Ad.IV A We had sought an appointment with your good self, vide our letter dated 21.01.2019.  In the meanwhile, we have received certain information under the RTI Act which has led us to believe that several irregularities have taken place in processing our request for renewal of recognition of this Association.  Since the concerned file does not appear to have been placed before you, we feel that we should bring certain facts of extreme importance, having a bearing upon the interests of our cadre, to your notice.  The process undertaken to renew the recognition of the AIACEGEO, appears to have been diverted into wrong terrains by distortion, misstatements, non-verification of facts/ documents, digression from Rules laid down by the Government and vested interests, as a result of which our legitimate claim appears to have been suppressed for more than ONE YEAR NOW.  Hence, we are compelled to put forth before you the following issues in the briefest possible manner. 2.       Regarding the issue of legitimate representatives based on the approved Constitution of the AIACEGEO & as per the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993, the following points require to be considered:     i.          The All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers (AIACEGEO) is a recognized Association in the CBIC representing the Superintendents of Central Excise (& GST).  Recognition under the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993 was accorded vide F. No. B.12017/10/2006-Ad. IV.A dated 21.01.2008 to represent the Superintendents of Central Excise (ref: N.F p.9 of the said file).

ii.         Renewal of recognition was accorded for five years with effect from 21.01.2010 vide F. No. 12017/10/2012-Ad IV A. At this point also the membership strength was ascertained with regard to the cadre of Superintendents (NF p 4 of the said file)

iii.        After the five years period of extension of recognition expired on 20.01.2015, the Board started requiring the Association to place DDO Certificates to evidence its continuance of membership base above 35% as stipulated under the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993.  However, the then Secretary General of the AIACEGEO Shri. Ravi Malik, refused to submit any DDO Certificates claiming that renewal was for ever and DDO certificates need not be submitted again.

iv.        The tenure of the All India Body of AIACEGEO, elected at a Convention of the AIACEGEO held at Daman on 02/11/2014, also expired on 02/02/2017 because as per the Constitution of the AIACEGEO, approved by the GOI, the tenure of the All India Body was for TWO years and if within another 3 months of the said TWO years elections are not held for the Body, the Body would cease to exist. 

v.         Further, on 23.02.2017, Shri. Ravi Malik who had been elected SG of AIACEGEO at the Daman Convention also got promoted to the cadre of Assistant Commissioner vide F.No.A.32012/10/2017-Ad.II and he took charge on in-situ basis on the same date.  The President of the AIACEGEO vide letter dated 14.03.2017, advised Shri. Ravi Malik SG to step down as SG due to his promotion and the President himself notified the Convention of the AIACEGEO at Chennai on 27^th and 28^th of May 2018. (As per Art. 10 (B) of the Constitution of the AIACEGEO, approved by the GOI, the SG is supposed to act only subject to the direction and control of the President). We were the duly elected unanimously as the All India Body in the said Convention.

vi.        The former SG also convened a parallel meeting against the consent of the President, at Gandhidham on the same dates and got himself re-elected as SG and passed minutes for the previous Convention at Daman ‘as if the Constitution was amended to allow ACs also to continue as members of the Association’. This so called amendment has been disputed by many who had attended the Daman Convention in 2014 and has also not been approved by the GOI as required under CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993.  Thus, the continuance of Shri. Ravi Malik in this Association even after his promotion as Assistant Commissioner is contrary to the provisions of the Constitution of the Association as approved by the Government at the time of Recognition and against the provisions of the CCS (RSA) Rlues, 1993 in as much as any amendment to the Constitution permitting an Assistant Commissioner to continue as member and/or office bearer had not been approved by the Government. These facts could be discerned on a perusal of file in F. No. 12017/07/2017-Ad. IV.A.

vii.      Thus, all acts committed or meetings held by Shri. Ravi Malik in the name of Secretary General of the AIACEGEO, after his promotion to the cadre of Assistant Commissioner on 23.02.2017, is ab initio void and any correspondence made by him to the Board/Government shall not be entertained as the view of this Association and the cadre it represents.

3.            The above facts have been submitted by us during a meeting on 27.7.2018 with a committee constituted for the purpose of ascertaining the facts pertaining to the dispute in claim for the legal right to the AIACEGEO. A copy of our submissions had also been submitted to the Chairman and Member (Admn), CBIC, vide our Ref. No. 39/CBIC/2018 dated 17.08.2018. The Committee had heard us in detail and after going through the Constitution and after detailed discussions, it was concluded in the said meeting that a one line letter clarifying that ‘as per the Constitution of the AIACEGEO, only Superintendents could be members and that on promotion to the post of Assistant Commissioner, they cease to be members’, would be issued because no amendment caused to the Constitution of the AIACEGEO had been submitted or got approved by the Government in terms of the CCS (RSA) Rules.  However, neither the minutes of the said meeting nor the decision have been communicated till date.

4. Regarding ascertaining majority within an Association to decide on the legal right and for verification of membership as per the CCS (RSA) Rules, the following points require attention:

i.               After our taking over, as required in F.No. 12017/07/2017-Ad.IV A dated 26.7.2017, we have submitted DDO Certificates (pertaining to 2017-18) along with an index showing formation/unit wise data, establishing a strength of membership of 5317 in two instalments, on 17.1.2018 and 26.7.2018, along with declaration of support to us from 24 of the 41 Units in the AIACEGEO, as below:

         

Sl.      No	Unit name	Submitted on		Total
		17/1/18	26/7/     18
1	Aurangabad
2	Bhopal	0	63	63
3	Bhubaneshwar
4	Chandigargh	169		169
5	Chennai	477		477
6	Chhattishgarh	123		123
7	Coimbatore	129		129
8	Goa
9	Jabalpur	29		29
10	Jaipur	326		326
11	Karnataka	692	106	798
12	Kerala	386		386
13	Kolkatta	847		847
14	LucknowCus(P)
15	Madurai	67		67
16	Malwa	137		137
17	Mumbai	439	382	821
18	Nashik	120		120
19	Pune	134		134
20	Salem	82		82
21	Surat& Daman	166	114	280
22	Tirunelveli	38		38
23	Trichirapalli		154	154
24	Vidharba	137		137
	Total	4498	819	5317

ii.             We are given to understand that Shri. Ravi Malik had also made some submissions on 20.1.2018 and 17.7.2018 claiming to be submitting certain DDO Certificates showing support to himself and his team.  At the outset, without going into the merits of his claim, it is established that he does not have any locus standi to represent this Association after he got promoted and therefore any DDO Certificates submitted by him also have to be taken only as our DDO Certificates and treated accordingly. 

iii.            Further, it is learnt that Shri. Ravi Malik has submitted the said DDO Certificates without any index or abstract showing year wise, unit/formation wise numbers. Any administration would have, in the normal course, required him to submit the documents with an abstract which is necessary for verification. More so because he had refused to submit any documents until we have submitted them with index on 17.1.2018.

iv.           During the meeting on 27.7.2018, the AD IV Section had stated that due to lack of man power they had not been able to segregate the DDO Certificates submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik year wise or formation/unit wise. We requested vide our letter dated 17.08.2018 mentioned in para 3 above to provide unit-wise and formation-wise particulars of the DDO Certificates submitted by the other side for the year 2017-18 so that any overlapping of membership could be explained or reconciled. Again vide our letter in Ref. No. CBEC/41/2018 dated 30.08.2018 addressed to the Chairman, CBIC, we requested for the above particulars along with a copy of the minutes of the meeting held in this regard. In response to this letter sent also via CPGRAM and the reminder dated 05.08.2018, we were informed vide F.No. 30013/56/2018-Ad.IV A dated 25.10.2018 that ‘the matter relating to claim of legal right of AIACEGEO is already under consideration of the Board and DDO certificates submitted by another claimant with regard to claim of legal ownership of Association has not been finalized so far and whenever these DDO certificates are finalized, intimation to this effect will be given immediately’.  Till date no further intimation has been received by us on our requests made above.

v.      In the meanwhile, in order to break the deadlock, we received all the DDO Certificates submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik under RTI and segregated them year-wise and unit/formation wise.  The break-up details are as below:

DDOS PERTAINING TO YEARS PRIOR TO MAY 2017 CONVENTION

    

Name of Unit	14-15	15-16	16-17	17-18	TOTAL
Karnataka	217	245			462
Chennai		309			309
Kolkatta				613	613
Raipur			161		161
Delhi	0	0	0	0	0
Hyderabad		327	335		662
TOTAL	217	881	496	613	2207

DDOS PERTAINING TO PERIOD SUBSEQUENT TO MAY 2017 CONVENTION

 

Name of Unit	17-18
Kolkatta	638
Delhi	815
Sub-total	1453
Hyderabad	352
Vijayawada	61
Guntur	28
Patna Ranchi Jharkand	409
Ghaziabad	64
Ahmedabad, Kandla Kutch	436
Sub-total	1350
TOTAL	2899

vi.     For the purpose of verification of strength or membership, only one year could be taken into account and within one year the same member cannot be counted twice.  Further, in a dispute, the membership established after the dispute alone could be taken into account.  Hence all the DDO Certificates submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik for the period prior to the Convention in May 2017 (2207 Nos) are of no relevance. In respect of Delhi, the elected General Secretary of the said unit has already submitted a letter to the Board stating that they are yet to decide on joining any of the factions and hence their DDO Certificates may be accounted against any one.  Similarly, the General Secretary of the Kolkatta Unit, elected in a process of election where the ballot papers clearly mentioned ‘ELECTION TO THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF ALL INDIA ASSOCIATION OF CENTRAL EXCISE GAZETTED EXECUTIVE OFFICERS, KOLKATA (AIB HQ; COIMBATORE)’ and 805 out of 1202 members (2/3^rd) had participated and cast their votes, has submitted their support and DDO Certificates to us and have been submitted to the Board.  Hence any other DDO Certificates on behalf of Kolkatta can also not be taken into account.  All these have been elaborately submitted before the Committee on 27.7.18 also.

vii.   Thus out of the DDO Certificates submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik, only 1350 qualify to be accounted for verification of membership as against 5317 submitted by us for 2017-18 and therefore our claim is clearly established on grounds of majority also. 

5.       Hence we request you to intervene in the matter personally and give necessary directions to the Member (Admn) and DGHRD so that unauthorised persons claiming to be office bearers of this Association, in violation of the Constitution of this Association and contrary to the Rules framed in this regard by the Government of India, are not entertained and thereby the legitimate right of this cadre and Association to be properly represented by members of their cadre and their choice is safeguarded against vested interests.  The renewal of the Association may kindly be directed to be issued in our name at the earliest, since discussions on Cadre Restructuring proposals may have to be started at a near date.

6.       We are prepared to make any further submissions before your good self, in person, if called upon to do so.

Thanking you,

Yours truly,

(R. Manimohan)

Secretary General