Giving a big slap to Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has issued orders on Wednesday lifting the suspension order against senior IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao.
CAT took this decision after AB Venkateswara Rao challenged his suspension for the second time. CAT, which had reserved judgment after completing the arguments earlier, has issued fresh orders. CAT commented that suspending AB Venkateswara Rao for the second time is a violation of justice.
The Central Administrative Tribunal ordered that AB Venkateswara Rao should be taken into service immediately and the amount of arrears due to him should be paid. The tribunal observed that the suspension was illegal and even after the Supreme Court had said that suspending the employee a second time was harassment of the employee.
The YCP government has accused AB Venkateswara Rao of bringing surveillance equipment from Israel to tap opposition leaders when he was the Intelligence Chief during the previous TDP government.
The government which suspended him for the first time on the same charge faced a backlash in the courts. AB Venkateswara Rao argued that he had only placed an order for surveillance equipment and had not purchased the equipment. His suspension was lifted.
But even after that AB Venkateswara Rao was not paid salary arrears during the period of suspension. So they he around the officers, but there was no result. At the same time, the government took a decision suspending him once again on the same charges.
Again he approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT). The CAT, which investigated the charges and suspension of the AP government, acquitted AB Venkateswara Rao. To this extent, the judgment has been announced on Wednesday striking down the suspension imposed on him.
AB Venkateswara Rao argued that the suspension imposed on him twice on the same charge was invalid. CAT agreed with this. In the past, once the suspension was imposed on the same charge and the court overturned it, the CAT concluded that the second suspension on the same charge was invalid.
As he was a key officer during Chandrababu Naidu regime as intelligence chief, Jaganmohan Reddy government from the very beginning kept him without any work and practically no salary was paid during its regime.