The Karnataka High Court has, in a way, cleared the decks for the promotion of senior IPS officer D Roopa Moudgil (IPS:2002:KN) by asking her to submit a new application for promotion to the position of Additional Director General of Police (ADGP). Not only this, the court has also asked the state government to review her application within two months in compliance with the law.
Roopa is virtually facing a criminal defamation case filed against her by IAS officer, Rohini Sindhuri. Sindhuri wanted to scuttle Roopa’s promotion on the basis that she was a subject of criminal defamation in which the investigation is still on, but the bench emphasized that the promotion process is confidential under DoPT regulations.
A single member bench of Justice M Nagaprasanna termed the defamation case against Roopa as a private matter while hearing Roopa’s plea for the state government’s Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to evaluate her promotion objectively, free from external influence.
The bench did not allow the IAS officer to file an interim application in this case and advised Roopa to submit a fresh application to the DoPT for evaluation.
Even the Advocate General and the Law Department of the state government made it clear that the disputes between the two woman bureaucrats were personal matters and did not affect service terms.
The bench finally ruled that promotion concerned the DoPT and Roopa exclusively, and Rohini had no business to interfere in it and thus dismissed Rohini’s petition.
