Gujarat high court tells state government to pay Pradeep Sharma subsistence allowance.
Suspended IAS officer Pradeep Sharma got a breather when a Gujarat high court bench on Monday asked the state government to retain Bhavnagar as his headquarters and pay him subsistence allowance from 2010.
The bench, comprising Justice R R Tripathi and Justice Mohinder Pal, gave the ruling while disposing of an appeal filed by the government challenging the Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT) April 21st order that asked it to pay subsistence allowance to Sharma.
In November 2011, the government had issued an order changing Sharma’s headquarters from Bhavnagar to Amreli and decided to give him subsistence allowance as he had been under suspension from 2010. The government, however, put a provision that allowance would only be given if the IAS officer stayed at Amreli. Sharma challenged this order before the CAT and sought his headquarters in Gandhinagar. Meanwhile, the government did not release his allowance as he had refused to be stationed at the new headquarters.
On April 21, this year, CAT asked the government to pay him subsistence allowance within six weeks. But the government challenged the order before the HC.
When the matter came up for hearing before the HC on Monday, Sharma agreed to stay back at his original headquarters in Bhavnagar, where he had served as municipal commissioner till his arrest. In return, the government agreed to allow him to stay there and pay him allowance if he complied with the government’s provision. After hearing both sides, the bench disposed of the appeal made by the government.
Sharma was arrested from Bhavnagar in 2010 in connection with the alleged multi-crore Bhuj market yard scam and later arrested in a series of cases. His elder brother and senior IPS officer Kuldeep Sharma, who retired a few months ago, was at loggerheads with the state government. He was granted bail in all cases in 2010.
The IAS officer has accused the Narendra Modi government of targeting him as his brother had unmasked many alleged misdeeds of Modi since the 2002 Godhra riots.
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