Dehradun: Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) sought the entire 2024–25 tour diary of principal secretary (forests) RK Sudhanshu to establish whether he had physically inspected Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s work or met him before lowering his annual confidential report (ACR) grading, while also seeking action-taken records on alleged forest irregularities flagged by Chaturvedi. A bench of Sanjeev Kumar and Rajveer Singh Verma issued notices to chief secretary and principal secretary (forests) on Aug 19 after Chaturvedi argued that the absence of any inspection or interaction would leave the grading “entirely without any physical basis”.Chaturvedi had moved CAT in June alleging that Sudhanshu lowered his 2024–25 ACR grading out of “personal malice” after he raised several corruption-related issues in the forest department. CAT had on June 17 issued a named notice to Sudhanshu, along with notices to chief secretary and principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), after Chaturvedi challenged the assessment and sought its cancellation.The cases cited by Chaturvedi included alleged irregularities in the 2019 Munsiyari eco-hut project, nearly 7,000 missing boundary pillars in Mussoorie forest division, purchase of saplings from outside nurseries in Dehradun and Mussoorie forest divisions at rates allegedly 10–40 times higher than normal, and a Miyawaki plantation proposal allegedly prepared at inflated rates. He linked the lowering of his ACR...
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