The High Court on Monday asked the government why making public servants officers on special duty (OSD) without any specific reason and time limit should not be declared unlawful.
The bench of Justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarker issued the rule asking the Public Administration Secretary to respond within eight weeks.
The court issued the rule following a writ petition filed by former Secretary Asaf-ud-Daula.
It also ordered the Secretary to explain why the Public Administration Ministry should not make specific guidelines on OSD. He will also have to submit a report with a list of the officials of the ministry made OSD in past 10 years and the expenses the government had to bear for them.
The petitioner's lawyer Anik R Haque told the court that only the Public Administration Ministry has as many as 591 officials as OSD. Of them, three are Secretaries, 37 Additional Secretaries, 146 Joint Secretaries, 170 Deputy Secretaries, 190 Senior Assistant Secretaries and 45 Assistant Secretaries, according to him.
"These officials are paid Tk 15.031 million in basic salary every month. They are being paid from the taxes people pay," he said at the hearing.
In many cases, he added, skills of these officials were not used properly as they are made OSD.
He also said a circular issued in 1991 had explained that reasons behind OSD. "There has been no specific reason to make OSD 90 percent of those who are OSD now," he added.
OSD are usually political victims with having no work to do with either in the policy making or the implementation process of the government.
Sending officers on special duty is seen as a punishment because the government of the day feels no need to have them, mostly for political reason.
The bench of Justices Mirza Hussain Haider and Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarker issued the rule asking the Public Administration Secretary to respond within eight weeks.
The court issued the rule following a writ petition filed by former Secretary Asaf-ud-Daula.
It also ordered the Secretary to explain why the Public Administration Ministry should not make specific guidelines on OSD. He will also have to submit a report with a list of the officials of the ministry made OSD in past 10 years and the expenses the government had to bear for them.
The petitioner's lawyer Anik R Haque told the court that only the Public Administration Ministry has as many as 591 officials as OSD. Of them, three are Secretaries, 37 Additional Secretaries, 146 Joint Secretaries, 170 Deputy Secretaries, 190 Senior Assistant Secretaries and 45 Assistant Secretaries, according to him.
"These officials are paid Tk 15.031 million in basic salary every month. They are being paid from the taxes people pay," he said at the hearing.
In many cases, he added, skills of these officials were not used properly as they are made OSD.
He also said a circular issued in 1991 had explained that reasons behind OSD. "There has been no specific reason to make OSD 90 percent of those who are OSD now," he added.
OSD are usually political victims with having no work to do with either in the policy making or the implementation process of the government.
Sending officers on special duty is seen as a punishment because the government of the day feels no need to have them, mostly for political reason.
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