CAT relief for IRS officer in AP govt crosshair

HYDERABAD: Senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer Jasti Krishna Kishore got a relief on Tuesday when the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Hyderabad, set aside his suspension and sent him back to his parent wing of income-tax department.
The AP government suspended Kishore in December last year over allegations of irregularities during his tenure as CEO of the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board (APEDB).
A bench comprising tribunal chairman Justice L Narasimha Reddy and member BV Sudhakar gave this verdict after hearing a plea filed by Kishore. The bench, however, made it clear that the AP government was free to pursue the criminal cases it had filed against the IRS officer in accordance with law.
The bench said the suspension was illegal and set aside the order of Kishore’s suspension. The bench also agreed with the argument of senior counsel Neeraj Malhotra who said his client may not get any relief even if the tribunal directs the state government to repatriate Krishna to the Centre since the state may not implement such an order. The tribunal directed Kishore to join his parent wing and a direction was issued to the Centre to take him back.Kishore was an I-T commissioner and part of a team that assessed the accounts of Jagathi Publications, a firm owned by AP chief minister Jaganmohan Reddy. It was based on the findings of this team, CBI officials concluded that the share value of Jagathi was artificially inflated during 2008-09.
Kishore was made APEDB CEO in September 2015 by the then Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP government. Though his deputation from the Centre ended in 2018, it was extended for three more years.
In May 2019 when Jagan came to power, Kishore urged both the Centre and the state government to send him back to his parent wing. However, citing financial irregularities, the AP government refused to repatriate him and transferred him to the secretariat. It attached him to the general administration department (GAD) without giving him any posting. Apart from suspending Kishore, it ordered ACB and CID probes against him to enquire into the alleged deeds of financial misappropriation committed by him. It also asked him to not leave Amaravati without its permission. Following a plea, the tribunal had stayed the suspension order some time back and even found fault with the government’s decision to transfer him to GAD. “By making him an ex-officio secretary, you (government) brought him under your administrative control. Can you do this? Do you possess such powers? You did this only to suspend him,” the bench had fumed at the state counsel in one of the hearings.