Terming as “shocking affairs, to say the least” the posting of officers facing corruption cases to the office of the Competent Authority (CA) in the I Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam case, the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday said that the government has shown the audacity in posting officers with doubtful integrity.
The court asked the Secretary of the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR) why these officers were posted to the office of the CA without a proper background check.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice S. Vishwajith Shetty passed the interim order during the hearing of a batch of PIL petitions on IMA scam after noticing the remarks made by Harsh Gupta, who is special officer and CA in IMA case, in his status report.
Pointing out that he had returned the services of several officers in the cadre of joint secretary, assistant commissioner, tahsildar, etc., who were posted to the office of the CA, on finding that they were facing probe by Lokayukta or Anti-Corruption Bureau, Mr. Gupta informed the court that he has requested the government to post the officer with the consent of CA as repeatedly officers having doubtful integrity were being appointed.
The Bench recalled how the then Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district B.N. Vijayashankar was appointed as CA without background check and later he was arrested in connection with the IMA case.
As Mr. Gupta stated in the report that many posts in the CA remained vacant due to return of officers with doubtful integrity and some officers not reporting for duty citing illness, the Bench directed the Secretary, DPAR, to assure the court that adequate number of officers are posted to ensure that CA discharges its duties without hindrance.
It was informed to the court that already around 40,000 claims have been received by the investors since opening of the online process to submit claims on November 25.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the Union government to take appropriate decision to extend the tenure of deputation of Joint Director A.Y.V. Krishna, who is on deputation to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and heading the Multi Disciplinary Investigating Team probing IMA case, till the completion of the probe.
The Bench issued the direction as it was pointed out that the CBI is making efforts to complete the probe into the case by the end of April 2021 and Mr. Krishna’s tenure with CBI is coming to an end on January 17.
