On May 30, the website of the Department of Personnel and Training’s EO division uploaded an unusual order, that of the re-employment of Special Protection Group chief Arun Kumar Sinha on a contract basis for one year beyond the date of his superannuation, which happened the next day.However, the order, duly signed by Deepti Umashankar, Secretary Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, was quietly withdrawn. Hours later, a fresh order, also signed by the same officer, was uploaded on the DOPT website. This one said the ACC has “approved the proposal to extend the service of Shri Arun Kumar Sinha IPS (KL:1987) as Director, Special Protection Group at the level of DG for a period of one year beyond the date of his superannuation”.What this means is that — for the time the first order was in play — the person in charge of the security of the Prime Minister was on contract. The ‘corrected’ order means he continues to be in (regular) service at least for the next one year. Curiously, though, the new upload did not specify, as government orders usually do, that the new order is being issued in supersession of an earlier order.It now appears as if the first order, of rehiring the SPG chief on contract, was never issued. Official sources The Wire spoke to admitted, “That was a draft order and was mistakenly uploaded on the DOPT website but was never an official one.” It is unclear as to who uploaded a “non-order” or if any punitive action is being contemplated. But both the orders were signed by the relevant official, Deepti Umashankar, and were marked to at least 19 departments of the government including state chief secretaries.A more plausible explanation for the apparent goof-up lies perhaps in a recent gazette notification on the SPG Act and Rules 3A and 5 that deals with the appointment of SPG chief. The notification prescribes a minimum qualification of an additional director general of police officer who should be an IPS officer. Rule 5 says officers of the All India Services shall be appointed to the SPG “on the same terms and conditions as applicable to the officer of the corresponding rank in the Central government”. In other words, hiring an officer on contract is not exactly providing him (or her) with the same terms and conditions of service that would be provided to the officer’s counterpart who is still in service and hence the need to modify the order.There is a possibility that officers of the DOPT and the cabinet secretariat are not yet fully familiar with the rules, perhaps because the rules themselves have only now been framed — 35 years after the SPG Act came into existence in 1988. The rules were notified by the internal security division of the home ministry on May 25, 2023.Retired North Block officials The Wire spoke with are surprised. A former official who retired as Secretary, Security (the SPG reports to this officer) said, “These appear to be thinly framed rules that really mean nothing. We are surprised at why they were framed in the first place.”The answer lies in perhaps an “assurance” given in parliament about the framing of rules for extant laws. Sources told The Wire, “An assurance was given on the floor of the House in 2019 that rules would be framed for laws for which they have not been framed as yet. There are other laws too for which rules have never been framed. The new SPG rules that have been notified are in keeping with this assurance.” Once an assurance is given in parliament, it becomes legally binding on the government to follow it through.Rules are required to be framed before a law comes into force as the lack of rules can sometimes prevent operationalisation of an Act. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act is a case in point. However, a former Union home secretary said there is no legal bar that prevents a law from coming into force if rules have not been framed. Why such an assurance was given in parliament is an explanation no one was willing to say.A former Intelligence Bureau official handling security says, “It was a conscious decision that the SPG had taken not to frame rules for the SPG Act. The law served us very well all these 35 years.”The Wire reached out to Secretary, ACC, Secretary DOPT, Cabinet Secretary and spokespersons of the ministries concerned. This copy will be updated if there is a response.
