The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : “Letika Saran deliberately omitted my service details”

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Thursday, Jun 23, 2011
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

“Letika Saran deliberately omitted my service details”

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: The retired Director of Fire and Rescue Services, Tamil Nadu, R. Nataraj, on Wednesday submitted before the Madras High Court that Letika Saran, a DGP, had “deliberately omitted” to state his service details in a writ petition filed by her against a Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order.

In his counter-affidavit to the writ petition, he stated that Ms. Saran had filed “a tailored version of the facts to suit her convenience and with an intention to divert” the court's attention and without due regard to the post for which the claim was raised.

Ms. Saran has challenged a May 31 order on Mr. Nataraj's application by which the CAT quashed the November 2010 order of the Tamil Nadu government appointing her as DGP, Tamil Nadu.

The tribunal had directed the official authorities to consider Mr. Nataraj's claim for appointment to the post from November 27, 2010 in view of the fact that he was the seniormost person ranked number 1 on the panel drawn by the UPSC.

On June 8, the High Court granted an interim stay of the operation of the CAT order.

Mr. Nataraj submitted that Ms. Saran had omitted to mention details pertaining to length of service, good record and range of experience for heading the State police force.

She had also suppressed her correct service details. He gave comparative details of his length of service, very good record and range of experience from the date of recruitment up to the level of DGP and of Ms. Saran. She could not be considered equal in respect of merit and seniority.

At one stage during the arguments, Mr. Justice Elipe Dharma Rao orally observed that Mr. Nataraj had, at no point of time, been appointed as DGP, Tamil Nadu.

He also wanted to know what Mr. Nataraj's right was to seek consideration for appointment to the post after retirement.

Mr. Nataraj's counsel, N.S. Nandakumar, submitted that the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case was not followed in the appointment of Ms. Saran as DGP, Tamil Nadu.

Her senior counsel, C. Aryamasundaram sought time to file a reply to Mr. Nataraj's counter. Advocate-General A. Navaneethakrishnan sought time to file a counter to the writ petition.

The matter has been posted for further hearing after four weeks.

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