The Madras High court today quashed disciplinary proceedings and charge memo against senior IPS officer and additional DGP Pramod kumar who was under suspension for nearly five years.
The officer was suspended in May 2012 after a woman promoter of Paazee Forex Private Limited, which went bust unable to repay deposits of a few hundred crores of rupees to its depositors, alleged that he had abducted her for ransom.
A division bench of Justice K K Sasidharan and Justice V Parthiban, quashed the charge memorandum and said he should be reinstated, if needed, in a non-sensitive post.
The bench accepted senior counsel Vijay Narayan’s contention that the chief minister is the competent authority and her approval was required both for initiating and issuing charge memo against the IPS officer.
The bench said authorities obtained the then chief minister’s approval on April 5, 2013 for initiating departmental proceedings for major penalty, but “there is nothing on record to show that file was thereafter produced before the chief minister either for her perusal or for approval of charge memorandum.”
As disciplinary authority, the chief minister was expected to approve the charge memo before issuing it to the delinquent officer, the bench said.
“Before approving the charge memo, the disciplinary authority was expected to consider the background facts relating to the initiation of proceedings. In short, the charge memo must have a relevance to the imputation of misconduct,” it said.
The bench quashed the disciplinary proceedings on the sole ground of the charge memorandum not having been approved by the chief minister, who is the competent disciplinary authority.
