Hyderabad, April 30: The High Court on Friday heard inconclusively the arguments on the writ petitions filed by the state government and director- general of police K Aravinda Rao seeking a stay on the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal which set aside Rao’s appointment as the DGP (Head of Police Force).
The bench is expected give an order on the interim applications on Saturday.
Besides the government and Rao, writ petitions were also filed by V Dinesh Reddy, director-general of vigilance and enforcement, whose elevation to the DGP cadre was quashed by CAT.
The bench of justice Ghulam Mohammad and justice KG Shanker heard at length advocate-general Sudershan Reddy’s arguments on behalf of the state government, Vedula Venkataramana’s on behalf of Aravinda Rao and Satya Prasad’s on behalf of Dinesh Reddy on the admissibility of the writ petitions against CAT’s orders.
The CAT, on April 27, set aside the appointment of Aravinda Rao as DGP (Head of Police force) on a petition filed principal secretary (home) P Gautam Kumar who contended that the appointment was illegal.
The tribunal declared that Aravinda Rao was appointed as DGP by the state government in violation of the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case and also of the directions given in the case of the earlier DGP RR Girish Kumar.
In his arguments, the advocate- general pointed to various holes in the CAT judgment.
Under the new set of rules, the matter was not required to be referred to the UPSC, as directed by the tribunal, he said.
The counsel for Rao assailed the tribunal’s approach as one being repetitive of the earlier order of the court which was stayed by the apex court.
He also faulted the tribunal for laying down a timetable for completing the selection process afresh.
The counsel for Dinesh Reddy challenged the exclusion of the senior officer as being contrary to the obvious facts on record. Jonnalagadda Sudheer, counsel for Gautam Kumar, justified the approach and directions of the CAT.
DGP clarifies
HYDERABAD: Director-general of police K Aravinda Rao on Friday refuted reports of his meeting chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and offering to resign in the wake of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) setting aside his appointment as DGP. He said that the reports were baseless.
–Agencies