The Delhi High Court has directed the Bihar government to release all the arrears of pay and allowances to an IAS officer, who has sought inter-state transfer from Bihar to Haryana alleging threat to his life for acting tough against the transport mafia there.
A bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jyoti Singh said the Bihar government shall continue to pay the salary to 2013-batch IAS officer Jitendra Gupta till the disposal of the writ petition, in which the state government has challenged a 2018 order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
The CAT had directed the Centre to consider the case of the officer for inter-state deputation to Haryana or for Central government deputation.
It had directed the Bihar government not to withhold its consent for the inter-state deputation or central deputation of the officer and communicate it to the Centre.
In its plea against the CAT order, the Bihar government has claimed that the tribunal failed to understand the mala fide intention of the officer for seeking cadre transfer, which was to avoid a criminal case in which he was acquitted but the matter was pending against his team members.
During one of the recent hearings on the Bihar government's plea, Gupta's counsel told the high court that he was not receiving any salary since July 2017 on the ground that he had not reported to duty in Bihar.
The counsel had referred to the order of the tribunal, which had directed that the officer's request for inter-state transfer be considered by the Centre and that the Bihar government should not withhold its consent.
He had further pointed out that the tribunal's order was not stayed by the high court.
The bench had said, "This being the position and considering the fact that the request for transfer was made on the ground of a serious threat to the life of respondent No.1 (Gupta), which has found favour with the tribunal, we are of the view that the salary and allowances of respondent No.1 should be released during the pendency of the writ petition.
"Accordingly, we direct the state of Bihar to release all the arrears of pay and allowances to respondent No.1 from the date the same have not been paid to him, and to continue to pay the same in future till the disposal of the writ petition. It shall be open to the petitioner (Bihar), without prejudice to its rights and contentions in the present petition, to avail of the services of respondent No.1 at any establishment of the said state in Delhi."
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