AP high court declines to interfere in order directing action against chief tax commissioner

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday declined to interfere in the single judge order directing the state and central govts to take appropriate action on the representation given by the commercial taxes department employees association, making several allegations against Ahmad Babu, the chief commissioner of state taxes. However, the high court set aside one observation made by the single judge, who said nothing seems to be right in the departments where Ahmad Babu worked.Challenging the single judge order, Ahmad Babu preferred an appeal. The counsel who appeared for Ahmad Babu said the high court impleaded him suo moto and did not give him a chance to file a counter affidavit to the petition. Arguing that the order would adversely affect the petitioner, he sought directions to stay the orders, and to send the petition back to the single judge to hear him out.The HC bench headed by Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice N Jayasurya declined to interfere with the single judge order, and directed the Union and state govts to take a decision on the representation given by the employees' association. Considering the apprehensions raised over the observations made by the single judge, the division bench modified the order, deleting the portion in which it was observed that "nothing seems to be right in any of the departments where Ahmad Babu worked".AP govt employees association general secretary M Ramesh Kumar moved the high court challenging the inaction of the state and union govts over the representation given to take action against Ahmad Babu, who, it was alleged, committed various irregularities in tax collections and harassed the employees by not giving promotions. The single judge of the high court took a serious view of the matter and directed both the govts to consider the representation and take necessary action after giving an audience to Ahmad Babu.