In an important development, senior Uttar Pradesh cadre IAS officer Sanjay Prasad (IAS:1995:UP) received a major relief from the Supreme Court on Thursday. The apex court put on hold an Allahabad High Court order containing adverse remarks against Prasad and directed the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to examine his suitability for future assignments by the high-powered Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC).
A top-ranking bureaucrat, Prasad is currently serving as Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) to the UP government.
This interim order was passed by a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S. Chandurkar on a petition filed by Prasad challenging the findings and directions issued by the Allahabad High Court in its June 3 ruling.
In his plea before the top court, Prasad submitted that the High Court had gone beyond the relief sought in the petition and made adverse remarks against him without any basis or justification.
It all started after a Jhansi resident, Megha Raikwar, had filed a habeas corpus petition in the High Court seeking the recovery of her 15-year-old daughter.
During the proceedings, the court was informed that an FIR had been registered and a chargesheet filed.
But the HC found that the chargesheet had not been filed in accordance with the directions issued in its judgment in the Subhash Chandra & Others v. State of Uttar Pradesh case.
In its reply, the UP government filed an affidavit informing the HC that it intended to challenge the Subhash Chandra judgment before the Supreme Court and requested that no further adverse orders be passed until the proposed appeal was filed.
The court then deferred the matter, but despite the passage of a good time lag, the state govt failed to approach the Supreme Court.
HC Justice Vinod Diwakar took exception to the delay in approaching the top court and passed adverse remarks against the IAS officer.
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