The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Friday sought an unconditional apology from senior IPS officer and home secretary P Gautam Kumar for casting aspersions on the tribunal in connection with the hearing in a plea filed by him challenging V Dinesh Reddy’s appointment as AP DGP. This is one of those rare occasions when CAT has sought an apology from a complainant.
Earlier, CAT had directed the state advocate general to assist the court saying it had found objectionable certain paras in Gautam’s petition to the high court. The HC has directed CAT to complete the hearing in the case in four weeks. Advocate general A Sudarsan Reddy appeared before CAT and sought two weeks to study the matter.
Appearing for Gautam, senior counsel CV Mohan Reddy told the CAT bench comprising justice P Swaroop Reddy and member (administration) R Santhanam that the question of Gautam apologizing to the bench did not arise as his client had never offended the tribunal.
“We are only aggrieved by the delaying tactics adopted by the state government and still insist that it is untenable. (But) we never aimed our criticism at the bench and, hence, the bench should not look at it in that light,” Gautam’s counsel said.
Since the proposed contempt proceedings against Gautam and his main petition are two independent proceedings, let the hearing in the main plea continue, Mohan Reddy suggested. The bench, however, did not relent and sought an apology from Gautam before starting its hearing in the main plea.
–Agencies