6 days ago
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The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has set aside the charge memo, issued by the State government this May, on the orders of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, to senior IPS officer Alok Kumar. This is in connection with the 2019 case of leaked audio clip of lawfully intercepted phone calls. Then Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in 2023 had found it not necessary to hold any departmental proceedings.
Timing of memo
The “timing of the charge memo legitimately invites doubt about the propriety of exercise” of process of conducting departmental enquiry as it was revived two years after previous the CM’s note against the enquiry, and just days before Mr. Kumar’s scheduled promotion to the rank of Director-General of Police by the end of May, 2025, said CAT’s chairperson Ranjit More in his judgment delivered on October 14.
The issue of legality of the issuance of the charge memo was referred to the chairperson, as a Division Bench of the tribunal in Bengaluru on September 4 passed a divergent verdict, in which B.K. Shrivastava (member-judicial) had set aside the charge memo and Santosh Mehra (member-administrative) had upheld it.
The Chief Secretary, based on the orders of Mr. Siddaramaiah, on May 9 had issued notice along with the charge memo to Mr. Kumar under Rule 8 (4) of the All-India Services (Discipline and Appeals) Rules, 1969. Mr. Kumar, who is presently an Additional Director-General of Police (Training), had challenged this before the CAT.
Agreeing with Mr. Shrivastava’s findings, the chairperson held that the issue of need for conducting departmental enquiry against Mr. Kumar and another IPS officer Bhaskar Rao (now retired) stood concluded in the decision taken on May 9, 2023, by the then Chief Minister, who had said, “...hence there is no need to conduct disciplinary enquiry against Mr. Alok Kumar, IPS, issue orders accordingly.”
The CAT further found that Mr. Siddaramaiah ordered for the department enquiry against Mr. Kumar on the file, which was put up for his consent on July 26, 2024, for merely intimating the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the then CM’s May 9, 2023, decision that “there was no need to hold any departmental enquiry on the issue.”
The CBI, which had conducted a probe into allegation of leaked audio-clip of lawfully intercepted phone calls, had filed “closure report” before a special court in 2021 as it could not establish the allegation that official audio-clip was leaked by either Mr. Kumar or Mr. Rao. However, CBI wrote to the State government recommending departmental enquiry against them.
Later, the CBI, on order of a special court, which refused to accept closure report, conducted further probe and submitted “closure report” again as it could not get any evidence against the police officers, and the special court in February 2024 accepted the closure report.
Also, the CBI in 2024 sent a reminder to the State government on departmental enquiry as it had not received any communication for its 2021 letter, and it was in this regard the file was put up before Mr. Siddaramaiah in July, 2024, for specifically communicating the 2023 decision of the then Chief Minister to the CBI.
10 months later
Meanwhile, Mr. Siddaramaiah, in his May 6, 2025, note, nealry 10 months after the file was placed before him, ordered departmental enquiry against Mr. Kumar by stating that he had “reconsidered 2023 decision for dropping the enquiry.”
However, the CAT found fault in this decision as the file put up before him was not for reviewing or reconsidering the 2023 decision, but for mere approval to communicate to the CBI about the 2023 decision. Also, the CAT found that there was no new material for the present CM to review the earlier decision though the law permits review.
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