In Haryana, an officer who never served as SDM or ADC during his two decade long State Civil Service career posted as DC after promotion to IAS

 Chandigarh – It may sound quite interesting and surprising but the fact is that in the State of Haryana, an administrative officer who has never ever served as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) and/or Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) a.k.a. Additional District Magistrate( )ADM) can nevertheless be posted straightway as Deputy Commissioner (DC) of a district.

In a recent posting & transfer order issued by the Haryana Government pertaining to close to two dozen IAS, amidst the same,  one of the 15 IAS officers, Satpal Sharma, who was promoted to IAS from the Haryana Civil Service-Executive Branch (HCS-EB) a month ago on Aug 4 and who thereafter was granted 2017 batch year i.e. seniority of IAS on August 21, has been posted as the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Panchkula district  with additional charge of Chief Administrator of Mata Mansa Devi Shrine Board.  Earlier, Sharma was posted as Administrator (Hqrs) in  Haryana Shehari Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP), Panchkula.

Hemant Kumar, advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court and commentator on administrative matters quips that whenever a person becomes an IAS through any of the three modes viz. whether through direct recruitment by passing the All India Civil Services Examination conducted annually by the UPSC, or through promotion from the State Civil Service (SCS), or through nomination/selection via  Non-State Civil Service (Non-SCS) quota, his or her keen desire is to be posted as the DC of a district in the State as soon as possible.

Interestingly,  since Dec 2002, when Satpal Sharma, who was then a regular Group C employee (clerk)  serving  in State PWD(B&R) Department, was directly appointed/nominated  to HCS cadre  by the then ruling Om Prakash Chautala dispensation in Haryana (remember there was no provision for conducting any sort of competitive examination then for induction into HCS through Group C employee quota ) and until his promotion to IAS cadre in August 2025, although Satpal Sharma held various senior administrative positions in several departments and boards/corporations of the Haryana Government however, for whatever reasons, he was never ever posted as an SDM in any sub-division or as an ADC in any district in Haryana.

Meanwhile, Hemant asserted that while there is nothing wrong with being posted as DC  after being inducted into IAS without having previously served as SDM or ADC during one’s service career in State Civil Service, however as per prevalent administrative practices and conventions in Haryana, every HCS cadre officer, whether selected through the open examination conducted by the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) or nominated/promoted from the Tehsildar/District Revenue Officer(DRO) quota or Group C employee category or District Development & Panchayat Officer/BDPO quota, is invariably  posted as SDM of a sub-division or as ADC of a district at some point of time  during his or her service career in the State Civil Service. Satpal Sharma is perhaps the only officer in the Haryana State bureaucracy who did not held any of the above posting during his hitherto entire state administrative service of over two decades which is an unique instance in itself.

Even persons who clear All India Civil Services Examination conducted annually by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and are selected and appointed as IAS & thereafter allotted any State/AGMUT Cadre are typically posted as Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM) for the first four years of their service and then as Additional District Commissioner (ADC) for another two to three years. Only after at least seven to eight years of service, i.e., after being in the IAS for such period, are they usually posted as Deputy Commissioner (DC).

Meanwhile, Hemant also pointed  out that three years ago in Oct, 2022 when four officers from non-HCS ( i.e. non-Service Civil Service quota) viz. Dr. Vivek Bharti, Dr. Harish Kumar Vashishth,  Dr. Jainder Singh Chhilar and Dr. Brahmjeet Singh Rangi were directly appointed into IAS & thereafter granted 2016 batch year i.e. seniority of IAS, were also initially posted as ADCs of various districts in the State for first couple of years. Nevertheless,  there are indeed few instances of officers who after their induction into IAS through non-HCS quota were however straightway posted as DC who also didn’t possessed previous experience of  serving as SDM or ADC but Satpal Sharma, who has been however promoted to IAS from HCS, is undoubtedly  the only officer till date who now holds the distinction of being posted as DC without having earlier  served as SDM or ADC during his entire State Civil Service career.