Tamil Nadu - Chennai

CAT notice to Government on IPS officer's petition

Special Correspondent

Government has violated a Supreme Court order, says petitioner's counsel

CHENNAI: The Madras Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has ordered notice to the State Government on a petition filed by IPS officer P. Sivanandi challenging a new charge memo issued to him by the Government.

Disobeyed orders

The charge memo, dated January 10, said Mr. Sivanandi had disobeyed the orders of the Director-General of Police by not appearing before the Medical Board, and that while on medical leave he had left the headquarters without permission and travelled to New Delhi in the name of `Siva.'

By these acts Mr. Sivanandi had failed to maintain absolute integrity and devotion to duty, and violated Rule 3(i) of the All India Services (Conduct) Rules, it said.

Vijay Narayan, senior counsel for the police officer, told the CAT Bench on Tuesday that the purpose of asking the petitioner to appear before the Medical Board was to make him join duty, and added that the Government had violated a Supreme Court order asking the parties to maintain status quo in the matter.

`Ulterior objective'

In his petition, Mr. Sivanandi said the impugned charge memo had been issued only for extraneous reasons and to achieve an ulterior object of ensuring that he was not promoted to the post of Deputy Inspector-General of Police on the basis of 1993 year of allotment.

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