Allowing the government's plea, the bench of justices B D Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul reversed the Central Administrative Tribunal's (CAT) August 31, 2010 order which had set aside the suspension order against the Income Tax officer.
"We find merit in the submissions of the petitioner (government) and the impugned order of August 31, 2010 is accordingly set aside. The writ petition is allowed," the bench said.
The bench also dismissed the CAT's finding that the department should have reviewed the suspension order soon after the officer was released on bail.
"In our view, there was no necessity for the competent authority to review order of suspension on release of respondent from custody prior to expiry of statutory period of 90 days," the bench said.
The officer, a 1990 batch Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, was posted as Additional Director of Income Tax in Lucknow. He was arrested on December 16, 2009 pursuant to the FIR lodged by his estranged wife and was released on bail on January 4, 2010.
The case was registered at Bharat Nagar police station against the officer for various offences under sections of 406 (criminal breach of trust), 494 (marrying again during the lifetime of husband or wife), 498A (cruelty against a woman by either husband or his relatives), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 120 B (conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). (More)