CAT lambasts Bihar govt over DGP's appointment

The Central Administrative Tribunal ruling has come after another senior IPS officer of the 1974 batch J K Khanna filed a petition at the tribunal pleading that he, despite being senior to D N Gautam, was denied the apex pay-scale of Rs 80,000 due to the government’s move to promote Gautam.

Though D N Gautam retired on July 31 last, the Central Administrative Tribunal has directed the state government that J K Khanna, senior to D N Gautam in the merit list, be promoted to the rank of Director General of Police and granted all the consequential benefits, including pay, with retrospective effect from the date his junior was promoted.

“Though it is the prerogative of the state government to select one of the Director General’s for the apex pay-scale of Rs 80,000, it has to bear in mind that the senior cannot draw less pay than the junior,” the Central Administrative Tribunal ruling said.

The state government, which apparently was aware of the fact that it had a weak defence, did not respond to the Central Administrative Tribunal notices. Nor did any lawyer appear before the tribunal on behalf of the Bihar government.

The Central Administrative Tribunal had to deliver ex-parte judgment.
The indictment comes close on the heels of Nitish’s regime drawing flak for reinstating an IPS officer Gupteshwar Pandey who had opted for voluntary retirement scheme nine months back.

Deccan Herald had published the news item, Nine months after taking VRS, IPS officer reinstated, on December 7 which highlighted how Pandey, after unsuccessfully nurturing political ambitions, was reinstated at the police headquarters.