High court seeks Haryana’s response on IAS officer’s plea

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday sought response from the Haryana government on a plea moved by Haryana IAS officer D Suresh, posted as principal resident commissioner, Delhi.

The high court bench of justice Vinod Bhardwaj acted on Suresh’s plea seeking quashing of inquiry reports with regard to him held by the State Vigilance Bureau. The response has been sought by May 30.

The plea claimed that the reports were illegal, arbitrary, unlawful and against the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act, Judicial Officers’ Protection Act and Haryana Urban Development Authority Act. The VB and its functionaries had purportedly been carrying on an inquiry/investigation into decisions taken and rendered by him, while discharging quasi-judicial functions as chief administrator, Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP). The VB’s action was abject violation of Section 17-A of the Prevention of Act 1988, which barred any such inquiry, the plea argued, adding that a letter was written by the bureau to the government for grant of permission to conduct regular vigilance inquiry against the “concerned” chief administrator, HSVP, and estate officer, HSVP, Gurugram, as they had taken “decision in favour of the allottee by allotting a plot by passing order of allotment on representation/application of the GPA holder and that too at the old rates.”

The plea added that VB bypassed the statutory protection granted to him and conducted three “illegal inquiries” and now investigating the matter without a sanction under Section 17-A of the PC Act.