By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The Uttarakhand High Court has invalidated the appointment of Prakash Chandra Dhayani Managing Director (MD) the government-run Power Transmission Corporation of Uttarakhand Limited (PITCUL) terming the decision contrary to prescribed rules.
The order came on Wednesday after a division bench of Justice Ashish Naithani and Justice Subhash Upadhyay heard the matter and held that the appointment violated rule 9-A as the educational qualifications prescribed in the 2021 rules are mandatory unless a legally valid exemption is granted by the government. Dhyani was serving MD of PTCUL since Sept 9, 2022.
The petition was filed by Chief Engineer Rajiv Gupta and others, challenging the order dated September 10, 2022, by which Dhayani was given additional charge as Managing Director.
According to the petitioners, since the regular selection process was pending, the charge should have been assigned to the senior-most eligible officer. It was argued that under Rule 9-A of the Uttarakhand Selection and Appointment of Managing Director and Directors Process Determination Rules, 2021, the post requires an engineering graduate qualification, which Dhayani allegedly did not possess.
Significantly, all the representations against Dhyani were ignored by the government as he was close to the powers that be, alleged Anil Baluni, an RTI activist.
A Dehradun court has registered a complaint against Dhyani two years ago for allegedly forging documents to get a series of promotions. The complaint was registered under section 156 (3) of the CRPC by the court of Judicial Magistrate First Urvashi Rawat after Baluni moved a petition seeking an FIR against Dhyani. After going through the documents, it appeared that the registration of the complaint is justified, the court had said. The petitioner has alleged in the court that Dhyani forged certain documents of the Uttar Pradesh State Electricity Board in the undivided Uttar Pradesh to get a series of promotions in the Uttarakhand Power Corporation Ltd (UPCL).
Baluni had alleged that separate petitions were submitted to Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami, Governor Gurmit Singh and top police officials in this regard but there was no response.