HYDERABAD: In a relief to senior IAS officer and former Hyderabad district collector Naveen Mittal, the Hyderabad bench of Central Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday set aside a charge memo issued against him by the Andhra Pradesh government in 2012.
The two-member bench, comprising B Venkateswara Rao (judicial) and Ranjana Chowdary (admin) allowed the plea of Mittal challenging the charge memo issued against him on October 23, 2012 to initiate disciplinary proceedings against him for his alleged involvement in regularising prime lands and buildings in the city in favour of private parties. These lands include a ` 30-crore worth of government land at Bathukammakunta, a 10,000 square yard plot at Bapunagar and a 4,000 square yard government hospital land at Sanathnagar in Hyderabad and that his decisions caused a huge loss.
The officer denied any wrongdoing. He blamed his successor Natrajan Gulzar, saying it was he who prepared the draft charges against him at the behest of the government. Advocate K Sudhakar Reddy, appearing for Mittal, contended that his client was senior to his successor and framing charges against his client based on the report of a junior officer was proof of ulterior motives against his client.
The CAT bench felt that there were mala fides involved delegating power to prepare draft the article of charges against the petitioner. The bench granted liberty to the government to conduct an enquiry with an independent authority in respect of alleged irregularities after considering the report of the Chief Commissioner of Land Administration submitted in 2010 with regard to the irregularities allegedly committed by the petitioner.