Andhra Pradesh’s elderly IPS officerA.B. Venkateswara Rao was reinstated in service on the day when he’s due for withdrawal on attaining the age of superannuation.
Chief SecretaryK.S. Jawahar Reddy on Friday issued orders to take back Venkateswara Rao into service. Following the orders, the Indian Police Service( IPS) officer of the 1989 batch was posted as Commissioner, Printing and Stationery. This will pave the way for his withdrawal in service.
The functionary met the Chief Secretary on Thursday and sought a advertisement in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s turndown to stay the Central Administrative Tribunal’s recent order to reinstate him into service with all pay and allowances, along with other consequential benefits.
A division bench observed that keeping in view the fact that the IPS officer is retiring on May 31, an interim order to suspend the CAT ruling might beget him great difficulty when compared to the supplicant( State). still, the court made it clear that Venkateswara Rao’s reinstatement would not avert the State from pacing with felonious action.
Venkateswar Rao, who served as the state intelligence chief during the former Telugu Desam Party( TDP) governance, had been under suspense since February 8, 2020.
A many months after the YSR Congress party came to power in the state, he was suspended on charges of earning security- related outfit like aerostat and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles( UAV) from Israel during his term as intelligence chief without following rules.
Following an order from the Supreme Court in April 2022, that an All India Service officer can not be kept under suspense for further than two times, Rao was reinstated in May 2022.
The state government had posted him as Commissioner of Printing and Stationery. still, a many days latterly he was suspended on the ground that he couldn’t continue in the service since the disquisition of the felonious charge against him had been pending and there was a liability of him impacting the substantiations.
Rao had challenged his suspense in the Central Administrative Tribunal( CAT).
After a prolonged hail of arguments, the CAT( Hyderabad branch) on May 8, 2024, abandoned his suspense. It ruled that an officer can not be suspended doubly on the same grounds and directed the government to reinstate Rao into service with all pay and allowances along with other consequential benefits.
still, the state government on May 21 approached the High Court grueling CAT’s order. It argued that the CAT order was vitiated by crimes of law and certain findings that were perverse and contrary to records.
