THIS GAME IS QUITE EASY TO UNDERSTAND BOSS

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] Address for Correspondence and Communications: R. Manimohan, Secretary General, AIACEGEO, G.S.T Bhavan, 6/7 A.T.D. Street, Race Course, Coimbatore – 641018. Email id: aisacbitc@gmail.com  [Mob.No: 09443063989]

President: Shishir Agnihotri 09820924001 Working President: Pranave Shekhar 098103 87212 Asst Secy General: A.S. Kundu 09426746721 Liaison Secretary: Abhishek Kamal 09852743525 Chairman, CR Comt: Tirthankar Pyne 09433375001 Vice Presidents: Ashok K Bansal M. A. Jithendra Kousik Roy S.K. Bundela P.T. Gaidhani Vinod Sharma H.S. Bajaj R.R. Thripathy Ashish Pathak R. Soundari Joint Secretaries: Malkit Singh Hemant Ghosal S.K. Yadav D. Samantaray Anil Bhokare A.G. Dhoble C. J. Thomas T. Elanchezhiyan Samir Kumar Sinha Core Committee: Ajit Kumar K.G. G. Srinath Sanjay Srinivasan Office Secretary: K.R.Dinesh Kumar

Ref. No: 02/CBIC/2020                                             Date: 20.01.2020 To Dr. John Joseph, Chairman, CBIC, North Block, New Delhi. Shri. M. Ajit Kumar, Member (Admn), CBIC, North Block, New Delhi. Sirs. Sub: Renewal of recognition of AIACEGEO - reg Kind reference is invited to the letter issued vide F. No. 12017/07/2017 –Ad.IV-A dated 16.01.2020 by the Under Secretary on the above subject, copy of which has been endorsed to us by email on the same date and also received by Post today.  2.       It is brought to your kind notice that the DOPT vide their OM in DOP F.No.2/1/2019- JCA-I(Pt) dt 18.12.2019 directed that appropriate action on our representation dated 18.11.2019 be taken by the Ministry. But the present letter dated 16.01.2020 of Ad. IV.A, fails to dispose of the matter and rather tends to put the clock back by almost a full year, by referring to our letter dated 04.02.2019 and the Board’s letter dated 12.02.2019, suppressing the Board’s own letter dated 08.08.2019, on the very same subject and from the very same file. 3.1.    Since this letter has given room for more confusion, rather than settling it, we doubt whether the matter was brought to your knowledge at all before the letter was issued and if so whether the full facts were placed before you before such a letter was issued.  We strongly suspect that the twilight zone of change of guard at the post of Chairman as well as the Member (Admn) could have made it possible to suppress vital documents, data and decisions, from your notice, to arrive at a perverse conclusion, coming to be issued in the name of a clarification vide the above referred letter dated 16.01.2020. The following short points would explain our reasons for such suspicion: (i)   The para 3 (i) of the letter dated 16.01.2020 is erroneously worded because, it fails to bring in the clarity contained in the letter of the Board dated 08.08.2019 from the very same file, with the approval of the Chairman, and incidentally signed by the very same Under Secretary. The letter dated 08.08.2019 had categorically stated that ‘any amendment made to the constitution/by-laws without prior approval of the Government is not valid’.  The Note dated 25.6.18 of the Director, Ad IV A in the very same file, states that amendment to the Constitution to enable ACs to

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 continue as members, as claimed by the faction led by Shri. Ravi Malik had not been sought or approved by the GOI as mandated by Rule 6(g) of the CCS (RSA) Rules, 1993 and hence the amendment to the Constitution of the Association is null and void.

(ii)      Going by the words of the letter dated 16.01.2020 itself, when it concludes in para 3 (i) that after promotion, a person cannot continue as a member of the Association, let alone be a Secretary General, it ought not to have taken any cognizance of the letter dated 15.02.2019 purported to have been submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik because on the said date he was not a member of this Association or its Secretary General.  The Board ought not to have suppressed the information repeatedly placed by us that Shri. Ravi Malik was promoted by the Board’s own order in February 2017, more than two full years before the purported letter referred to in the Board’s letter dated 16.01.2020 was issued by him.  Once the letter dated 15.02.2019 is removed from the scene, then the rest of the things would have fallen in proper place and there would not have any necessity for the para 3 (ii) or the subsequent para4 also in the Board’s letter dated 16.01.2020.

(iii)     We have repeatedly pointed out that when one of the claimants is clearly held not eligble to be a member and/or Office Bearer of an Association, then any claim made by him and all acts purportedly done by him in the capacity of member and Office Bearer are null and void.  This is a basic legal premise, which is continuously being ignored in the entire proceedings, due to which they have got unnecessarily stretched, consuming a lot of valuable time of the Chairman, Member (Admn) and other officers in the Board, dealing with the matter.

(iv)     By wording para 3 (i) differently from the conclusion arrived at in letter dated 08.08.2019, there is a perceptible design – to re-open the issue pertaining to facts and convert them into an issue of legal interpretation.  The issue before the Board was limited to considering whether the so called amendment to permit a person promoted as AC to continue in this Association was approved by the Government of India, in terms of the provisions of the CCS (RSA) Rules.  The question was not whether the Rules per se permit it. Once, it has been established that in the case of this association, no such amendment had been approved by the Government in terms of the CCS (RSA) Rules, there is no requirement to go on a fishing expedition at the instance of the ineligible claimant to find out the position in other associations or in other organisations. The mischief of para 3 (i) in the letter dated 16.01.2020 is therefore only to try to make a question of fact into a question of law.

3.2.    We therefore request you to kindly order an enquiry as to the reasons for such suppression of facts and distortions, in dealing with ‘the fundamental right of an entire cadre to be represented and heard on their service matters’.  If corrective steps are not taken, it will lead the cadre to believe, that such deliberate mischiefs are done at the behest of some vested interests, particularly when the Re-structuring of the CBIC is on the anvil. 

4.1.    Another vital issue that is being neglected in the above said entire proceedings is the actual support of the membership, between two groups claiming the title of the Association.  It is essentially the numerical support to a particular Association that decides the matter conclusively.  The check-off system is itself intended only for this purpose.  In this context, the following points become relevant:

(i)           When the Board had been repeatedly requiring the Secretary General of this Association from the year 2015-16, for submission of DDO Certificates for renewal of recognition (actually which should have been obtained by the Board/Ministry itself from the field formations) the then Secretary General Shri. Ravi Malik refused to submit the same, on technical grounds. 

(ii)          After the promotion of the then Secretary General Shri. Ravi Malik on 23.02.2017, vide F.No.A.32012/10/2017-Ad.II, our Body was elected in May 2017 in the Chennai Convention.  Thereafter, we have submitted DDO Certificates on 17.01.2018, to prove our membership strength as was required of us by the Board vide their letter dated 13.07.2017.  However, subsequently, the very same person who had been refusing to submit DDO Certificates when he was the legitimate Secretary General, submitted a letter on 20.02.2018 claiming to be enclosing some DDOs.  These were submitted without any index or even year wise or unit wise break up.  No other office would have entertained such a claim, particularly without verification of enclosures. However, for best known reasons, it was promptly entertained on file, to create the ‘rival claim’.  Not even the fact that the person submitting the claim was an Assistant Commissioner and hence not competent to represent this Association, came in the way. 

(iii)         Since the Ad. IV.A expressed their inability to verify the documents purportedly submitted by Shri. Ravi Malik, we had to access them under the RTI.  In the process we found and reported to the Board that he had submitted DDOs for the same persons, for different periods, for persons and units no longer supporting him after his promotion and for Superintendents as well as Assistant Commissioners.  The records before the Board in the form of letters of support from units and DDO Certificates, would prove that while we have a membership base and support of 6541 Superintendents from 26 units for the year 2017-18, the other claimants have the support of only 589 Superintendents from 5 Units, for the same period of 2017-18. 

(iv)        Hence, when the strength of the membership supporting us is already established, we need not have been asked to submit any fresh documents, as required of us in para 4 of the letter dated 16.01.2020.

4.2.    To enable the entire facts to be brought to your kind attention, we are enclosing a ‘Chronology of events in the matter of renewal of recognition of AIACEGEO, in the form of an Annexure to this letter.  We do not want to state the obvious.

5.       If in spite of all the above clear evidences and submissions the Board would still feel that we should come with a different name and documents in such new name, then we request you to kindly issue the following directions to end the impasse and stop any misuse of the name of this Association by any persons or groups not entitled to use it:

(i)                   Both claimants should come with names other than the present name of ‘All India Association of Central Excise Gazetted Executive Officers’ (AIACEGEO) to avoid confusion, claims and counter claims again in the re-verification and also to ensure that by default, someone does not use the name without proper credentials and membership support, just because one group alone changes the name;

(ii)                  Whichever claimant is able to prove majority membership support, with fresh membership forms towards the new name for enabling the re verification, shall be entitled to be the continuation body of the AIACEGEO, for purposes of pursuing various issues of the cadre taken up by the AIACEGEO, before different forums and

(iii)                 The re-verification has to be conducted before finalisation of the Cadre Restructuring proposals and to enable this, all AO (DDO)s should issue certificates on the number of membership forms submitted to them for making subscription deduction and payment towards each of the newly named Associations, within a stipulated date.

6.       We are to hold our All India Executive Committee Meeting at Nagpur on 31.01.2020. It will be extremely helpful, if an early decision in the matter could be taken and communicated to us before the said date so that our AIEC will be able to take appropriate decision in moving further in the matter because our cadre interests have to be put forth and heard by the appropriate authorities in the ensuing Cadre Restructuring.

                                Thanking you and with regards,

Yours truly,

Encl: Chronology of events (7 Pages)

(R. Manimohan)

Secretary General

Copy submitted to:

(1)    The Cabinet Secretary, Rashtrapathi Bhavan, New Delhi.

(2)    The Revenue Secretary, North Block, New Delhi.

(3)    The Secretary, DOPT (JCA) North Block, New Delhi – 110 001. (with ref. to OM in DOP F.No.2/1/2019- JCA-I(Pt) dt 18.12.2019)

(4)    The Under Secretary, Co-ordination Section), Department of Revenue, North Block, New Delhi.

(5)    All Principal/Chief Commissioners of Customs and Central Excise under CBIC. (through respective units of AIACEGEO)

(R. Manimohan)

Secretary General