<p>"Main roz marta hoon, roz bachta hoon (I face death every day, and I survive)": Sanjiv Chaturvedi</p><p>Career death has shadowed Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, 50, ever since he entered civil service. His 23-year tenure has been a relentless battle against corruption. In the process, he has set records — the youngest civil servant in the country to receive the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, and the only litigant to have faced recusals by 16 judges.</p><p>Chaturvedi’s track record in exposing scams won public acclaim, but made him the target of a section of politicians and bureaucrats. He has sought refuge in law, but judges have been curiously reluctant to decide his cases.</p><p>Two Supreme Court and four high court justices, two lower court judges and eight members of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) have recused themselves, without citing a reason, from his cases in the last 12 years. The IFS officer appears to have opened up a can of worms that the judiciary is reluctant to address.</p><p>Last fortnight was nerve-wracking even for the dauntless Chaturvedi. The CAT — miffed at a defamation suit that he had filed against one of its members — had initiated suo motu criminal contempt against him. The tribunal took up the matter, regardless of a stay by the Uttarakhand HC. Chaturvedi approached the HC, but Justices Ravindra Maithani and Alok Verma declined to hear him.</p>.<p>Rumour was rife that Chaturvedi would be convicted by CAT. But the media outcry following the 16th recusal prompted Chief Justice G Narendar of the Uttarakhand HC to intervene. At the 11th hour, he stayed the matter until October 30, and the IFS officer survived to fight another day.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi’s battles began, fittingly enough, in Kurukshetra (where the epic hero Arjuna put duty above all). Born in Allahabad, he was allotted the Haryana cadre after joining the IFS in 2002. As a probationer, he'd been impressed by IAS officer Ashok Khemka's tough stance on corruption. His career trajectory was to follow 'transfer babu' Khemka's, with 12 transfers in 5 years.</p>.<p>In quick succession, the young engineer-turned-forest officer exposed illegal tree-felling and poaching, misuse of public money and large-scale embezzlement in fake plantations schemes. Evidently, political bigwigs were involved. Haryana's then chief minister B S Hooda went hammer and tongs at him. He suspended Chaturvedi and recommended his dismissal, downgraded his performance reviews and sought to implicate him in an abetment-to-suicide case. But Chaturvedi found supporters in high places.</p>.<p>The then President of India, Pratibha Patil, revoked his suspension. It was the first of six interventions by Presidents Patil and Pranab Mukherjee on Chaturvedi's behalf. Hooda’s orders were set aside. In 2012, Chaturvedi was moved to Delhi as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), even as the Union government directed a CBI probe into the scams he had exposed in Haryana.</p>.<p>In the Augean stables of AIIMS, Chaturvedi found embezzlement in construction projects, tenders, security contracts, purchases of equipment and drugs, pension funds and so on, in which senior bureaucrats and doctors were involved. Some 20 of the over 200 financial irregularities he red-flagged were referred to the CBI. The then Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad dubbed his work as outstanding.</p>.<p>When the government changed in 2014, Chaturvedi was ousted as CVO. What had he done to annoy the BJP brass? It turned out that some of those caught with their hands in the till were close to high-profile figures in the new dispensation.</p>.<p>The following year, Chaturvedi received both a pat on the back and a slap in the face. The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation honoured him for "his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity" in exposing corruption, while the Union health ministry awarded him a zero in his Annual Performance Appraisal Report. It remains the only instance when his APAR has been below par.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi joined the Uttarakhand cadre in 2015. After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s request for his services was denied, Chaturvedi was appointed Conservator of Forests. Like a good soldier, he got down to the job, and made it a high-profile one. His team’s conservation of rare Himalayan flora and fauna, use of AI to study the impact of climate change and efforts to raise public awareness on ecology through innovative biodiversity parks brought international recognition.</p>.<p>The fight against corruption continued. Chaturvedi flagged irregularities in the running of the Corbett National Park and most recently, the disappearance of 7,375 boundary pillars in the Mussoorie Forest Division (thereby inviting encroachment). Even as the state government reacted by transferring him, the Union environment ministry ordered a probe into the scam.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi is not the first civil servant to run afoul of the politician-bureaucrat nexus, but he's certainly the most feisty. Show-cause notices have been issued to the country’s top bureaucrats, including the cabinet secretary and CBI and IB officials, on his petitions. He's scored points against the Union government in court, where his knowledge of law has impressed even the judges.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi may well end up as a cautionary tale for upright civil servants. For the moment, he has a legion of well-wishers, and is something of a hero figure. He's lectured probationers on anti-corruption measures at the IAS, IPS and forest academies. The main point of his story is that it exposes the Achilles heel of both the executive and the judiciary.</p>.<p><span class="italic"><em>(Author is an independent journalist)</em></span></p>
<p>"Main roz marta hoon, roz bachta hoon (I face death every day, and I survive)": Sanjiv Chaturvedi</p><p>Career death has shadowed Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer Sanjiv Chaturvedi, 50, ever since he entered civil service. His 23-year tenure has been a relentless battle against corruption. In the process, he has set records — the youngest civil servant in the country to receive the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay award, and the only litigant to have faced recusals by 16 judges.</p><p>Chaturvedi’s track record in exposing scams won public acclaim, but made him the target of a section of politicians and bureaucrats. He has sought refuge in law, but judges have been curiously reluctant to decide his cases.</p><p>Two Supreme Court and four high court justices, two lower court judges and eight members of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) have recused themselves, without citing a reason, from his cases in the last 12 years. The IFS officer appears to have opened up a can of worms that the judiciary is reluctant to address.</p><p>Last fortnight was nerve-wracking even for the dauntless Chaturvedi. The CAT — miffed at a defamation suit that he had filed against one of its members — had initiated suo motu criminal contempt against him. The tribunal took up the matter, regardless of a stay by the Uttarakhand HC. Chaturvedi approached the HC, but Justices Ravindra Maithani and Alok Verma declined to hear him.</p>.<p>Rumour was rife that Chaturvedi would be convicted by CAT. But the media outcry following the 16th recusal prompted Chief Justice G Narendar of the Uttarakhand HC to intervene. At the 11th hour, he stayed the matter until October 30, and the IFS officer survived to fight another day.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi’s battles began, fittingly enough, in Kurukshetra (where the epic hero Arjuna put duty above all). Born in Allahabad, he was allotted the Haryana cadre after joining the IFS in 2002. As a probationer, he'd been impressed by IAS officer Ashok Khemka's tough stance on corruption. His career trajectory was to follow 'transfer babu' Khemka's, with 12 transfers in 5 years.</p>.<p>In quick succession, the young engineer-turned-forest officer exposed illegal tree-felling and poaching, misuse of public money and large-scale embezzlement in fake plantations schemes. Evidently, political bigwigs were involved. Haryana's then chief minister B S Hooda went hammer and tongs at him. He suspended Chaturvedi and recommended his dismissal, downgraded his performance reviews and sought to implicate him in an abetment-to-suicide case. But Chaturvedi found supporters in high places.</p>.<p>The then President of India, Pratibha Patil, revoked his suspension. It was the first of six interventions by Presidents Patil and Pranab Mukherjee on Chaturvedi's behalf. Hooda’s orders were set aside. In 2012, Chaturvedi was moved to Delhi as Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), even as the Union government directed a CBI probe into the scams he had exposed in Haryana.</p>.<p>In the Augean stables of AIIMS, Chaturvedi found embezzlement in construction projects, tenders, security contracts, purchases of equipment and drugs, pension funds and so on, in which senior bureaucrats and doctors were involved. Some 20 of the over 200 financial irregularities he red-flagged were referred to the CBI. The then Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad dubbed his work as outstanding.</p>.<p>When the government changed in 2014, Chaturvedi was ousted as CVO. What had he done to annoy the BJP brass? It turned out that some of those caught with their hands in the till were close to high-profile figures in the new dispensation.</p>.<p>The following year, Chaturvedi received both a pat on the back and a slap in the face. The Ramon Magsaysay Foundation honoured him for "his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity" in exposing corruption, while the Union health ministry awarded him a zero in his Annual Performance Appraisal Report. It remains the only instance when his APAR has been below par.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi joined the Uttarakhand cadre in 2015. After Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s request for his services was denied, Chaturvedi was appointed Conservator of Forests. Like a good soldier, he got down to the job, and made it a high-profile one. His team’s conservation of rare Himalayan flora and fauna, use of AI to study the impact of climate change and efforts to raise public awareness on ecology through innovative biodiversity parks brought international recognition.</p>.<p>The fight against corruption continued. Chaturvedi flagged irregularities in the running of the Corbett National Park and most recently, the disappearance of 7,375 boundary pillars in the Mussoorie Forest Division (thereby inviting encroachment). Even as the state government reacted by transferring him, the Union environment ministry ordered a probe into the scam.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi is not the first civil servant to run afoul of the politician-bureaucrat nexus, but he's certainly the most feisty. Show-cause notices have been issued to the country’s top bureaucrats, including the cabinet secretary and CBI and IB officials, on his petitions. He's scored points against the Union government in court, where his knowledge of law has impressed even the judges.</p>.<p>Chaturvedi may well end up as a cautionary tale for upright civil servants. For the moment, he has a legion of well-wishers, and is something of a hero figure. He's lectured probationers on anti-corruption measures at the IAS, IPS and forest academies. The main point of his story is that it exposes the Achilles heel of both the executive and the judiciary.</p>.<p><span class="italic"><em>(Author is an independent journalist)</em></span></p>
