The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on Thursday stayed the September 12th Government Order (G.O.) of promoting two IPS officers, Umesh Kumar and Chakravarthy J., to the rank of Director General of Police (DGP) from the rank of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP).

A division bench of the CAT, comprising S. Sujatha (member-judicial) and Sanjiv Kumar (member-administrative), passed the interim order on a petition filed by IPS officer Alok Kumar, who is the senior-most among the ADGPs in the State.

Mr. Alok Kumar has questioned the departmental promotion committee, which deliberated on the promotion of IPS officers in its meeting held on September 6, over the promotion given to his juniors without considering him .

In May this year, the CAT stayed the notice issued by the State government to Mr. Alok Kumar, ADGP (Training), initiating a fresh disciplinary inquiry against him regarding the alleged issue of phone tapping and the audio leak of certain intercepted telephonic conversations in 2019.

However, a division bench, comprising B.K. Shrivatsava (member-judicial) and Santosh Mehra (member-administrative) of the CAT passed divergent judgments on September 4, with the member-judicial setting aside the disciplinary proceedings and the member-administrative upholding the proceedings against Mr. Alok Kumar. However, this division bench, on September 11, clarified that an interim order of stay against the disciplinary proceedings would continue until a third member decided Mr. Alok Kumar's petition against the disciplinary proceedings.

Mr. Alok Kumar had questioned the legality of initiating a fresh disciplinary inquiry by the State government, which after "consciously" closing in 2023 the earlier inquiry, initiated on the same allegations after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which had probed the alleged phone tapping issue, filed 'B' reports in 2021 and 2024 before the jurisdictional court stating that it could not establish the allegations against him and the others.

G.O. promoting two IPS officers by ignoring Alok Kumar stayed by Central Administrative Tribunal