HC seeks UP govt reply on PIL seeking dismissal of convicted

The Allahabad High Court today sought a reply from Uttar Pradesh government on a Public Interest Litigation seeking the dismissal from service of IAS officer Rajeev Kumar who has been convicted in a corruption case by the special CBI court at Ghaziabad.
A division bench, comprising Justice Dilip Gupta and Justice R N Kakkar, asked the state government to apprise the court, within 10 days, about the steps that may have been taken against Kumar after his appeal against his conviction was set aside on February 24 last.
The order came on a PIL filed by former Punjab DGP Julio Ribeiro and a number of other retired civil servants who had contended that as per the All India Service (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, Kumar was liable to "major punishment" following his conviction in a corruption case and the state government should recommend his dismissal from service.

Kumar, along with former Chief Secretary of the state Neera Yadav, was awarded three years' rigorous imprisonment by the Ghaziabad court which held them guilty of abuse of power in allotment of plots of land.
Kumar was the Deputy CEO of Noida in 1990s while Yadav, who is now retired from service, was the Chairperson.
Today's High Court order came a day after Kumar's surrender before the CBI court which sent him to Dasna jail in Ghaziabad.
Yadav had surrendered earlier and is in judicial custody even as her petition challenging the High Court judgement, whereby her conviction was upheld, is pending before the Supreme Court.