HYDERABAD: The Central Administrative Tribunal bench at Hyderabad on Friday reserved its judgment in the petition filed by senior IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao, the then Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence), challenging his suspension by the Andhra Pradesh government in February 8 this year.
The bench, comprising Justice L Narasimha Reddy, concluded the arguments after hearing both sides in the case.Senior advocate G Vidya Sagar, appearing for Venkateswara Rao, contended that the State government had suspended the petitioner in violation of Rule 3 (1) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969. The impugned order is unsustainable since it does not record about prima facie satisfaction of the government regarding findings of the preliminary enquiry and that they constitute serious charges warranting suspension pending enquiry. Besides, there is no truth in the allegation of extending illegal benefit to petitioner’s son Sai Krishna, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Akasam Advances System, which is a local franchise of RT Inflatable Objects Limited, Israel.
The petitioner’s son has no role in the episode. In fact, the tender process for procurement of Aerostat and Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was cancelled and no payment made to the agency concerned. Besides, the State government has to inform the Central government about its decision of suspending the officer within 48 hours, but in the present case the State suspended him on February 8 and informed the Centre on February 13. The government has taken the decision unilaterally and given no scope to the petitioner to make an appeal before the Centre, he argued. After hearing both sides, the bench reserved its order to a later date.