New Delhi: Seventeen judges have recused themselves since 2013 in matters related to Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer and Magasaysay awardee Sanjiv Chaturvedi’s plea for an anti-corruption probe in Haryana and other cases. The latest recusal was on September 21 by Rajveer Singh Verma, a judicial member of the Delhi bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
The CAT order did not specify a reason for the recusal, as has happened in previous cases related to Chaturvedi’s pleas, which largely stem from when he was posted in the Haryana Forest Department
Chaturvedi says he uncovered corruption and irregularities in Haryana’s forest administration and that he was harassed and faced adverse official action for doing so. He sought an independent CBI investigation. A two-member inquiry committee was constituted by the Union government to investigate his claims, which found that he was being harassed.
Senior Haryana government functionaries were implicated in the case. The matter was referred to the Central Vigilance Commission, which referred it to the CBI. The central agency said in a November 2011 report that the issues raised by Chaturvedi were “worthy of an independent probe”.
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