Salute to the AIACEGEO...

The hot topic, as on date, is about “Surgical Strikes”, whether it is by our armed forces or about De-monetization, especially, as it has an impact on our daily lives. Similarly, the 'surgical strike' carried out by AIACEGEO for vacation of the stay (earlier granted by the Chennai-CAT) through the High Court of Madras, is laudable. 

It was not expected by anyone... all were active in the social media, sharing their views, knowledge and experiences and some were cursing the chief office bearers of AIACEGEO for not being able to get the stay vacated.

It is to the credit of the CESA, Mumbai, that the Secretary General and the President of the All India body, took us into confidence, along-with other units, and  coerced  to take a drastic step, when Chennai-CAT was tossing the issue around and extending the stay (for not holding the DPC from Group-B to Group-A) after every hearing / adjournment. 

 on Saturday, the17^th December, 2016 it was decided to go against the interim order dated 05^th August, 2016, passed by the CAT Chennai in OA No. 1237, for   setting aside the said CAT order.

Writ petition was made ready and filed in the High Court on 22^nd December and the matter was listed on 23^rd December and the argument was over before 11.30 and the matter was reserved for order. In the late evening, the Divisional Bench passed the order not only expressing its resentment and in their explicit order in paragraph 9 & 10 of the order reads :-

          “we think it is necessary to interfere with the order passed by the 
             learned Tribunal at this stage. Therefore, the interim order 
             passed by the learned Tribunal in O. A. No. 1237 of 2016 
             dated 5.8.2016 and continuation of the same, is suspended 
             pending disposal of the original Application.” 

and in the paragraph 11, the protection is given to the interest of the Applicants who has filed the application in Chennai CAT.

CESA, Mumbai expresses its sincere thanks to the contribution, dedication and achievement of Secretary General and President and Office Secretary and others who have made it possible to overcome the hurdles. CESA, Mumbai also thanks the Sr. Counsel Shri Vijay Shankar, who not only drafted, but also filed it on time and argued effectively, successfully countering the plea/s & arguments of the opposing Counsels.

Normally in surgery, operation is carried out by the Surgeon, but before entering the Operation Theatre, pre-operative procedures are first carried out by the Anesthesia Doctor, followed by the Surgeon, when the actual operation is carried out. Subsequently, care & support is given by another set of doctors for the patient's recovery. From the diagnosis stage to the recovery stage, ‘n’ no. of doctors would have rendered their services, which not only made the operation successful but also made the person fit again. 

But in our case, as far as our cadre is concerned, everybody claims to be a specialist and gets into a bickering atmosphere through email, SMS, & WhatsApp. Their services are limited to prompt responses in Whatsapp and SMS, majority of which are hollow, if not  discouraging or worse, disgusting. Temporarily, it may give satisfaction but ultimately it harms the cadre.

Being an office bearer of the Association for a longer period, we have learnt to turn the said criticism into motivating us & making us more determined to enhance our speed to achieve our stated aims and objectives, rather than it discouraging us.

The copy of the HC order has reached the Board's office and the process has started for deciding the date for holding the DPC. Till today (26-Dec-2016) late evening, the date for holding DPC has not yet been finalised. There are more than 1800 posts of Assistant Commissioners, which are lying vacant. 

In the last cadre restructuring, CBEC has promoted 148 Appraisers as ‘AC (Temp)' in  June-2015.    It is a fact on record that the last ‘Examiner’ promoted as AC (Temp), is from 1995 Batch of Staff Selection Commission : the last ‘Preventive Officer’ promoted as AC (Temp) is from 1990 Batch of Staff Selection Commission : the last ‘Excise Inspector’ promoted as AC (Temp) is from 1983-84 Batch of Staff Selection Commission.

The Temporary 2118 Grp-A posts  were created for removal of stagnation. But stagnation in Central Excise still prevails and the gap (in the date of promotion to Grp-A) among the three cadres widens more and more as time passes by. Inspite of repeated representations, the Board has continued to cause ‘disparity’ in Gr-B to Gr-A promotions. The Board, in its ‘Note for Cabinet’ [Annexure-F] has mentioned the stagnation of Gr-B officers from the Central Excise & Customs Preventive stream/s. The ‘AC (Temp)’ posts are not part of the Gr-A RRs 2016. Hence, there is absolutely no reason now for considering the Gr-B officers from the non-stagnated feeder category of Customs; unless the Inspector Central Excise of 1995 is promoted as the “AC (Temp)”.

CESA, Mumbai expects and appeals to the AIACEGEO, that they should rise to the occasion and convince the Board Officials, not only to hold DPC at the earliest (preferably in this week) but also to fill the posts from Central Excise for maintaining the parity (in the date of promotion to Grp-A) amongst the feeder cadres.

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