CORRIDORS TREND 2017, PART 2: How government changed rules for ease of marriage among All India Services officers

THERE’S nothing new in marriages among All India Services officers -- IAS, IPS and Indian Forest Service. But 2017 saw the resolution of a unique case where the existing service rules had to be altered thanks to the marriage of an IPS-IAS couple and seeking of a common cadre. In fact, this unique case cropped up in the month of February 2016 when government found it difficult to accord inter-cadre transfer of P Parthiban, a 2011 batch AGMUT cadre IAS and his spouse Nisha Parthiban, 2011 batch IPS, to a common cadre on grounds of marriage; the matter finally got resolved in August this year. The Parthiban couple belonged to...

All India Services, but the problem arose because P Parthiban could not be placed in Tamil Nadu cadre where Nisha Parthiban was working, as Tamil Nadu happened to be his home cadre. And similarly, Nisha Parthiban could not be transferred to her husband’s cadre AGMUT, as she belongs to Delhi which is a part of the AGMUT cadre. 

Till the rules were changed, there was no provision in the service rules under which the husband or the wife could opt for the cadre of their spouse being their respective home cadre. The then DoPT secretary Sanjay Kothari refused to take the final call, and decided to put up the proposal for seeking approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by the Prime Minister.

The new policy says if either of the officers cannot opt for the cadre of the spouse (because they are respective home cadres), they may choose the immediate next cadre opted by them. And in case of non receipt of preference within the stipulated time from the officers concerned, they will be assigned the most deficit cadre.

IPS officer Nisha belongs to Delhi. She did her MA before getting into the Indian Police Service. She was allotted the Tamil Nadu cadre. On the other hand, P Parthiban did his mechanical engineering before getting into IAS. He belongs to Tamil Nadu.

Whereas the 2017 saw the trend of babu marriage continue, the year also witnessed a large number of officers changing their names for various reasons. The Central government, for example, permitted the change of names for two IAS officers — Ms Vinita Vasdev Vaid of 1996 batch and Dr Tina Kumar of 2007 batch. Vinita Vasdev Vaid, who belongs to Maharashtra cadre, is now be known as Ms Vinita Vaid Singal whereas Dr Tina Kumar, a 2007 batch Rajasthan cadre IAS, is recognised as Dr Tina Soni for all official purposes, according to two separate notifications. Earlier, 2009 batch Uttarakhand cadre IAS Jyoti Neeraj Khairwal changed her name to Jyoti Yadav.