The former Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan has been issued a show-cause notice by the Andhra Pradesh government. The 1983 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre retired IAS officer Ms. Sudan has been asked to explain why disciplinary proceedings should not be initiated against her for misusing official position.
In the notice, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das accused her of violating the provisions of the All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968 and misused her position “in order to derive personal gain, violating the rules, regulations and established practices.” The retired officer in question has been charged with converting extraordinary leave into earned leave/half-pay leave dating back to the years 2005 and 2006 as per AIS (Leave) Rules.
The whole story that provoked AP government to issue show cause notice is that the officer Preeti Sudan, who was the then Managing Director of AP State Civil Supplies Corporation, obtained a year-long ‘extraordinary leave from March 1, 2005 to February 28, 2006, to join her family in the United States. She subsequently obtained government permission to utilise her time in the USA to take up a study with the Development Research Unit of World Bank, where her husband Randeep Sudan, also of the IAS 1983 batch, was working on foreign assignments. Her leave was further extended till May 31, 2006.
However, while in the Central service, Preeti Sudan requested the government to convert her EOL (excluding the World Bank project period) to earned leave or half-pay leave. As she was the Secretary in the Health department, the Under Secretary obliged her request and issued a memo converting the EOL to EL/HPL in February 2020.
The AP government termed this as misuse of official position to influence the subordinates for personal gain and warned her that action will be initiated if she fails to submit a satisfactory explanation within two weeks.
