BENGALURU: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has stayed a notice issued by the chief secretary to senior IPS officer Alok Kumar, who is the additional director general of police, proposing a departmental inquiry against him into the 2019 telephone audio leak case.
Kumar contended that the departmental inquiry was already dropped as per the reply dated May 6, 2024, given by the state government under the Right to Information Act, and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) too has also filed a ‘B’ (closure) report in the case which conclusively established that there was no evidence against him into the alleged audio leak.
He alleged that the notice, dated May 9, 2025, was issued under Rule 8(4) of All India Services (Discipline & Appeals) Rules, 1969, just days before his name was cleared by the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) for promotion to the director general of police post. The notice was after the director general and inspector general of police took his profile on April 23, 2025 to forward it to the Union Public Service Commission to consider him for the post of DG&IGP, he said.
Kumar’s counsel submitted before the CAT that a previous departmental inquiry was initiated on the same charges and finally no action was taken. He also drew attention to the order dated February 13, 2024, where the ACMM, Bengaluru, designated for hearing CBI cases, accepted the closure report.
The notice has been issued because the applicant is due for consideration for promotion with effect from May 21, he argued, pointing out that the notice was issued with a malafide intention to create an artificial hurdle for his promotion.
CAT Judicial Member BK Srivastava however, noted that the matter should be heard by a division bench which is not available at present.
It is to be ordered that the notification will be treated as stayed till June 10, the next date of hearing.
The interim relief will be possible before the division bench on the next date, he said in the order passed recently while issuing notice to all the respondents including the chief secretary.