HYDERABAD: In a relief to IPS trainee KV Maheswara Reddy, the Central Administrative Tribunal bench at Hyderabad on Tuesday set aside the Union Home ministry’s order of suspending the appointment letter of Reddy during the training period.
The tribunal directed the authorities concerned to allow him to continue the IPS training.The bench, comprising Justice L Narasimha Reddy, chairman, and BV Sudhakar, administrative member, passed this order in the petition filed by Maheswara Reddy, trainee IPS officer, challenging the order of the Home Ministry suspending the offer of appointment following registration of a dowry harassment case against him at Jawahar Nagar police station in the city. The petitioner alleged that the Home Ministry took a unilateral decision.
Petitioner’s counsel K Sudhakar Reddy submitted that Maheswara Reddy had a registered marriage with his BTech classmate Bhavana. After he got selected for the IPS, she feared that he would divorce her and lodged a complaint in the police station.But Maheshwara Reddy had entered his wife’s name in official records and hadn’t done any injustice to her. Since it was an inter-caste marriage, he did not disclose it to his parents fearing that the latter may commit suicide.
The director of the Mussoorie training centre was also satisfied with the reply given by the petitioner to the complaint lodged by his wife to the director through an e-mail, he added.On the other hand, Central government counsel V Vinod Kumar told the bench that the Home Ministry has the power to suspend a trainee after registration of an FIR against him.
Intervening, the bench said that the petitioner had entered his wife’s name Bhavana in the records and even the academy director was convinced with the reply given by the petitioner on the allegations levelled against him.
“A person is selected to an IPS post based on his merit. It is a fact that there is a dispute between the couple, and an FIR was registered. How can the petitioner be suspended at the stage of allegations,” the bench questioned.