Controversial Indian Police Service (IPS) officer (1988) Mukesh Gupta will now retire as Additional Director General of Police (ADG) instead of Director General (DG) as the Chhattisgarh High Court on Wednesday nullified his promotion to the ex-cadre post.
Chief Justice Arup Kumar Goswami and Justice Deepak Tiwari quashed the CAT order and said the cancellation of ex-cadre promotion of Gupta by the state government was not an act of demotion.
The ex-cadre promotion too was time bound and was to expire on December 31, 2019, the court said.
The court upheld the decision of the state government of cancelling the ex-cadre promotion of Gupta, whose suspension was revoked by the Chhattisgarh government on the instructions of the Home Ministry on September 18.
Now, the officer will retire as ADG instead of DG on September 30.
The officer was promoted during the tenure of BJP government as DG on October 6, 2018, just a few hours before the election code of conduct came into effect.
After the change of guard in Raipur in December 2018, the Congress government cancelled his promotion. Gupta was suspended for alleged financial irregularities and other offences.
Gupta filed a case in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which passed an order in his favour and stayed the notification to cancel the promotion.
Terming the CAT decision illegal, the state government filed a petition in the High Court. The single bench ordered in favour of Gupta and upheld the decision of CAT.
The state government appealed against the decision of the single bench in a double bench, which has set aside the CAT order that was in favour of Gupta.
