CAT quashes Aravinda Rao's appointment as DGP

In what is seen as a major embarrassment to the state government, the Central Administrative Tribunal (Cat) on Wednesday quashed the appointment of K Aravinda Rao as the Director General of Police and told the state government to appoint a new state chief of police by June 9.

The order came after Mr Gautam Kumar had sought the setting aside of Mr Aravinda Rao’s appointment since ‘it was in violation of IPS cadre rules.’

Mr Gautam Kumar, presently Principal Secretary (Home), had urged the Tribunal to set aside Mr Aravinda Rao’s elevation to the DGP’s post, arguing that that the appointment had skipped the seniority list and hence was illegal, since it violated the rules of the IPS cadre.

Mr Gautam Kumar said that he was sidestepped from the top job by Mr Aravinda Rao even though he belongs to the 1975 batch of IPS while the DGP is of 1977 batch.

Mr Gautam Kumar, in his petition, termed Mr Aravinda Rao’s promotion as illegal and hence his appointment as DGP (head of police force) is equally illegal.

He urged the tribunal to peruse the records pertaining to the promotion of Rao and consequently declare his promotion as illegal.

Mr Gautam Kumar had in his petition to the Cat also charged the state government of favouring eight officers of 1977 batch and promoting them even when there were no vacancies in the DGP cadre.

Mr Gautam Kumar had also alleged that Mr Aravinda Rao was not eligible to be posted as a DGP rank officer at the time he was appointed to the post on August 31, 2010.

The Central Administrative Tribunal had on September 9, 2010 issued notices to the state government and Mr Aravinda Rao in connection with Mr Gautam Kumar’s petition.

It may be mentioned here that former DGP SSP Yadav had approached the Cat against his removal and subsequent appointment of Mr Aravinda Rao’s predecessor RR Girish Kumar. He described Rao as an illegal promotee to the rank of DGP, hence his appointment as DGP was illegal. 

He even urged the court to call for records pertaining to the promotion of Rao and consequently declare his promotion as illegal. 

Mr Girish Kumar had charged the State government with cadre mismanagement. “The state was creating a large number of insignificant ex-cadre posts and making senior officers languish in them. On the other hand, the junior level officers were given cadre posts,” he had said. 

Mr Gautam Kumar made as respondents to the petition the eight officers of 1977 batch who were promoted as DGP – Aravinda Rao, V Dinesh Reddy, Shiv Shanker, Umesh Kumar, M Alagar, Alok Srivastava and two others.

While delivering the verdict, the Tribunal directed the state government to appoint a new DGP by June 9 as per the procedural norms.