Jammu and Kashmir’s new circular on handling complaints against officials sparks outrage

Critics have said the circular protects corrupt officials and suppresses dissent in the guise of shielding government servants from harassment.

Security personnel stand guard during high alert in view of Muharram procession, at Lal Chowk in Srinagar on July 15, 2024.

Jammu & Kashmir’s new circular on handling complaints against government officials has stirred up a hornet’s nest, with critics accusing it of shielding corruption and muzzling dissent while the administration claims the circular is designed to shield public servants from “unnecessary harassment”. 

The contentious circular, titled “Handling of complaints against public servants” and dated June 20, 2024, threatens legal action against individuals lodging complaints against officials deemed “false/frivolous/anonymous/pseudonymous”. The order, issued by the General Administration Department (Vigilance), states: “Many a times, these complaints, after verification, have been found devoid of any merit, and disposed of accordingly… In the process, however, public servants discharging their bona fide duties, have to face unwarranted harassment and mental agony, affecting their decision-making, thereby causing administrative inertia, which inter-alia adversely affects disposal of government business and public service delivery.” 

Notably, the Union Territory administration issued a similar circular in October 2022 aiming to “eradicate corruption” and ensure a robust service delivery mechanism with increased participation of citizens in governance. It also outlined a series of instructions to discourage the “culture of anonymous or pseudonymous complaints”.

In 2023, the LG administration also issued an order to regulate the social media behaviour of its employees. Citing Article 19 (2) of the Constitution, The J&K Government Employees (Conduct) Rules, 1971, and The J&K Civil Services (Classification, Control and Appeal) Rules, 1956, it laid down guidelines warning employees against criticising government policies. 

Unlike the previous orders, the new circular calls for providing free legal aid to officials and asks officials affected by “false complaints” to seek assistance from the Crime Branch to initiate criminal proceedings against complainants. It cautions that complainants could be prosecuted under Section 182 of the Indian Penal Code [relevant section of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita] for making false statements on oath or affirmation to a public servant or person authorised to administer an oath or affirmation and offering support to officials in filing civil lawsuits to claim damages against complainants. It proposes initiating prosecution under Section 195(1)(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure [relevant section of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita], 1973.

Corruption in focus  

Interestingly, the circular arrives at a time when corruption-related complaints against government officials have increased significantly. According to Anuradha Bhasin, the executive editor of The Kashmir Times, the new circular “stonewalls accountability and grants impunity” to bureaucrats and officials. “It also makes the targeting of whistleblowers legitimate.” Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) leader Waheed ur Rehman Para said the order was a mere facade. “J&K has been plagued by rampant corruption under the Lieutenant Governor (LG) Manoj Sinha administration, with several major scandals unfolding over the past three years.” 

Para pointed to the string of recruitment exam cancellations and claimed that the circular was issued to shield the administration from scrutiny over corruption allegations. According to media reports, between 2019 and 2022, the J&K Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) caught 136 government officials accepting bribes. The ACB registered 1,600 corruption cases in 2022 alone, while only 78 officials were convicted between 2010 and 2023. Imran Nabi Dar, spokesperson of the National Conference (NC), said, “The new circular doesn’t augur well; the big fish keep evading the ACB’s net.”

Last year, Ashok Kumar Parmar, a senior IAS officer, sought a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in the implementation of the Jal Jeevan Mission. Parmar also accused LG Manoj Sinha of using public funds for a private family function through the Office of the Resident Commission, New Delhi. The LG office has not yet responded to the allegations and media reports. 

Some critics argue that the circular is being used to conceal alleged misgovernance and punish whistleblowers, instead of addressing the merits of the complaints. In June this year, Fiaz Ahmed, a teacher at Government Middle School Draman in Doda district’s Bhatyas zone, was suspended after speaking to the media about the dilapidated condition of his school in a remote hilly village and the shortage of teaching staff. The suspension order reads, “The teacher, instead of resisting the media person entering into the school premises without prior permission of the authorities, disseminated confidential information as well as criticised the government policies such as Digital India, school education policies and poor working of higher authorities.” It termed his act a “clear violation” of guidelines.

Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed, a Jammu-based lawyer practising in the J&K High Court, said the new circular would discourage anti-corruption efforts in the UT. Stressing the “prevailing culture of unaccountability” in the UT administration, Ahmed cited the stampede incident at Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine on December 31, 2021, in which 12 persons died and over two dozen were injured. “The administration hasn’t fixed accountability for the accident so far,” he said.

Ahmed, whose PIL exposed the Roshni land scam in 2020, added, “There is already an atmosphere of fear in J&K since August 5, 2019. There is always an apprehension that one could get embroiled in a legal case under laws such as the Public Safety Act (PSA) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA). People have stopped expressing themselves freely.” 

Jammu-based RTI activist Raman Sharma argues that the circular restricts the fundamental rights of citizens guaranteed under Article 19 of the Constitution. He accuses the UT administration of prioritising the protection of allegedly corrupt officers over providing support to their victims. 

The new circular also threatens to stop government advertisements to news organisations and cancel the accreditation of journalists for publishing complaints against officials that are deemed “false”. As Sharma says: “What’s worse is that the administration is using government advertisement funding as a tool to control the media.” 

A senior Srinagar-based journalist says that the order is “yet another step towards political disempowerment of residents after August 5, 2019 (abrogation of Article 370 in J&K). It has come at a time when the J&K High Court Bar Association has been barred from holding its annual election for the fifth consecutive year. The government’s decision to prosecute a former Central University of Kashmir professor, Sheikh Showkat Hussain, along with author Arundhati Roy under UAPA in a 14-year-old case sends a message to all the dissenters here.” In recent years, journalists in the region have faced informal and illegal interrogations, often resulting in arrests under laws like the PSA and UAPA. 

The last chairperson of the State Accountability Commission, Justice Bashir Ahmad Khan, once called J&K India’s most corrupt State and complained about the toothless nature of the commission. Ironically, the commission was disbanded in November 2019 when the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 was implemented. 

Frontline tried to contact LG Manoj Sinha’s private secretary MK Bhandari, chief secretary Atal Dullu, and Sinha’s media advisor Yatish Yadav for comments, but there was no response despite repeated attempts.