Gujarat HC breather for IPS officer Rahul Sharma

A division bench of the high court comprising Justices D H Vaghela and ZK Saiyad disposed a writ petition filed by the state government against the interim order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) staying disciplinary action against IPS officer Rahul Sharma.   

Sharma’s counsel Mukul Sinha said, “The bench observed that CAT should hear the matter finally within three months and that the observations of CAT, in its interim order, should not be considered final or binding.” He further said, “The court passed the order after recording the statement made by Additional Advocate General Tushar Mehta that no action would be taken in pursuant to the charge-memo issued against Sharma till the final disposal of the matter before CAT.” Earlier, Gujarat government had issued a charge memo against him alleging he had committed misconduct by retaining the CD of records of mobile phone calls made during 2002 riots. Sharma had challenged the disciplinary action initiated by the charge-memo before CAT on the ground that such an action was barred under the provision of the section 6 of the Commission of Inquiry Act.