Secretary under cloud, Ministry seals Lalit Kala Akademi’s record room

A report sent by an Akademi official to the Ministry notes that R K Sharma was “found tampering with digital and other records”. R K Sharma is Sudhakar

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Sharma’s defence assistant in the disciplinary proceedings against him. The room, No. 205, is opposite Sudhakar Sharma’s cabin on the second floor of the Akademi building.

A Ministry report says “it is learnt that Sudhakar Sharma managed to get a duplicate key of the room where documentary proofs supporting the article of charges against him are stored”. A Ministry official, who is supervising the matter, claimed “Sudhakar Sharma facilitated the entry of R K Sharma to the record room”.

When The Indian Express sought his response on the Ministry’s move to seal the room where inquiry papers against him are kept, Sharma said, “No comments.”

Minister of State for Culture Mahesh Sharma told The Indian Express, “We are probing the issue.”

The Ministry is also filing an FIR against unnamed Akademi officials for presenting fake travel bills by allegedly forging the signature of the then Akademi’s Deputy Secretary, Administration and Account, Kanwarjit Singh. During a preliminary inquiry by the Ministry, Singh certified that his “signatures were forged”.

A Ministry team is also camping on the Akademi premises, looking into cases of alleged irregularities.

Akademi officials say the turf war between the Ministry and the Akademi intensified after Sharma switched sides. Dismissed twice by previous Akademi chairpersons over allegations of irregularities, Sharma was reinstated by the Ministry last October.

Sharma was sent to the Akademi in 2001 on a four-year deputation. At the end of his tenure in March 2005, his post was regularised. He was first dismissed on December 2, 2011 by then chairperson Ashok Vajpeyi who, in a written order, accused him of “misconduct”, “several and severe lapses”, and said he was “habitually derelict”.

Sharma was later reinstated by the Ministry with directions that he should face a probe for the charges listed in the dismissal order.

In February 2013, then chairperson, K K Chakravarty, suspended Sharma again and initiated an inquiry. In May 2013, as many as 16 charges were levelled against him by the Akademi, including undertaking foreign visits without permission and alleged irregularities.

In May 2014, the Akademi terminated his service, noting that his 2005 appointment was illegal. But in July 2014, Sharma challenged the order before the CAT which directed the Centre to consider his appeal. On December 10, 2014, the Ministry quashed the Akademi’s order, saying that “it was against the principles of natural justice”. A day later, the Akademi ordered that he would remain under suspension while he was under probe.

In July 2015, Chakravarty, in a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee, challenged the Ministry’s order. “The Ministry, instead of looking into such grave matters, cancelled my order for the termination of the Secretary,” he wrote.

Even as the Akademi engaged in a showdown with the Ministry over Sharma, the Ministry took over the management of the institution in April 2015. The Ministry sacked Chakravarty and appointed Additional Secretary K K Mittal as the administrator.

Sharma’s reinstatement last October had artists protesting but he then had the full support of the Ministry. MoS Mahesh Sharma defended the reinstatement. Incidentally, the Delhi High Court, in January 2015, had said Sudhakar Sharma should remain suspended until the inquiries against him got over.

Sharma was supposed to facilitate the transition. But relations between the Akademi and Mittal, the administrator, turned sour. A woman employee of the Akademi even filed a “harassment” complaint against Mittal at a police station. Minister Mahesh Sharma took strong exception to the lodging of the complaint and called it “a violation of protocol”.

“If she had any complaint against anyone, (she) should have first brought it to the notice of the Culture Secretary, the Minister. But before that she filed the police complaint,” the Minister said. The Ministry then set up a committee which gave a clean chit to Mittal.

The Ministry is now reopening Sharma’s past records. He is facing several financial and conduct-related inquiries. The Ministry claims even his regularisation for the post of Secretary is illegal — the CAG is seeking recovery of the salary he has drawn for the post.

In a May 17, 2016 letter to Rajiv Gautam, Assistant Secretary (Accounts), Lalit Kala Akademi, the Office of the Director General of Audit, noted: “Ministry of Culture informed that concurrence of the Ministry of Finance was not obtained for upgradation for the post of Secretary, LKA, and there is no record to show that any OM or notification was issued by the Ministry of Culture for upgrading the post of Secretary.”

The letter, with the subject line “Undue favour to Dr Sudhakar Sharma”, stated: “It is suggested that corrective action/recovery may be initiated under intimation to audit.”