Government opposes IAS man's voluntary retirement scheme, cites pending investigation

CHENNAI: The state government has opposed the voluntary retirement of a 1983-batch IAS officer K Ashok Vardhan Shetty, stating that it had ordered a vigilance inquiry for certain irregularities committed by him during his tenure as rural development department secretary.
A division bench comprising Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice M Venugopal has admitted the petition and posted it after two weeks for further hearing.
After the state government rejected Shetty's VRS application on December 7, 2011, he moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for remedy. On February 27, CAT quashed the government's rejection order and said that his VRS application should be accepted with effect from December 9, 2011, and all his retirement benefits should be disbursed to him. The present appeal has been filed by the public secretary Kumar Jayant.
The present petition contended that since the VRS had been opted for before the completion of 30 years of qualifying service, the government's acceptance was required. Rejecting Shetty's claims that the government had ordered preliminary inquiry against him based on an anonymous petition, the petition said due procedure had been followed while ordering the vigilance inquiry.
Kumar Jayant wanted the court to quash the Tribunal order dated February 27.