The Delhi High Court has asked the Central government to explain the reasons for not following the due procedure of law while dismissing India Security Press (ISP) general manager Ganga Prakash, who was accused of selling old printing machines and conspiring with prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi in the multi-crore rupees stamp scam.

While admitting the petition of Prakash, the bench asked the government counsel to state the reasons for not following the procedure while dismissing the Joint Secretary level officer from service in 2004, charging him for unsubstantiated offences under the National Security Act (NSA).

In a petition, Prakash has also demanded an explanation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Karnataka police for the CBI’s raid on Prakash’s residence at Hyderabad by the CBI.

The charges of auctioning the printing machines for which he was dismissed, was not conducted during his time and the machines could not even print stamp papers, said Counsel K C Mittal, filing the petition for Prakash.
The tenders invited by the ISP Nasik was approved by the then General Manager V K Jain between January-February 1998. He claimed that he joined the ISP Nasik as Deputy General Manager in second week of March and had nothing to do with the tender process.

“No offset printing machines were sold by ISP, Nasik, to Telgi or to a company purported to have been floated by him,” said the petition.

“The dismissal of Prakash was unconstitutional and illegal. The dismissal order is  an abuse of power which  has been passed for extraneous reasons,” said the petition.