Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer and former intelligence chief of Andhra Pradesh A B Venkateshwara Rao, who moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Thursday, challenging his suspension by the YSR Congress government last Saturday, could not get any relief.
The Central Administrative Tribunal did not consider his plea for giving a stay order on his suspension and posted the case to February 24, after seeking the state government to file a counter affidavit.
The government on Saturday night suspended Venkateshwar Rao for his alleged irregularities in procurement of security equipment from an Israel company during his tenure as state intelligence chief during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime.
The tribunal heard the arguments from the advocates of both the petitioner and the respondent. However, the tribunal posed some strong questions to the government as to why it had suspended an official of Director General of Police rank during the inquiry without taking approval from the Centre.
When the advocate said the government had all the powers to suspend an officer, the court asked him whether any information had been given to the Union home ministry at least after the suspension.
The tribunal also questioned the government as to why it had not been paying salaries to the IPS officer and why it had not given him any posting. It asked the government to submit a counter-affidavit with all the details within a week.
In his petition to the CAT, Venkateshwar Rao alleged that t the suspension was politically motivated and was done based on frivolous grounds.
He pointed out that he had been kept in waiting without being given any post since May 31 and was not being paid his salary since then. He requested that the CAT strike down his suspension orders and restore his job.
