Senior Gujarat cadre IPS officer Satish Verma has got a stay on the Centre’s decision of dismissing him a month before his retirement. Verma retires on September 30. But the Supreme Court stay is only for one week.Meanwhile, Satish Verma can approach Delhi High Court which will eventually decide about the dismissal.
Satish Verma was assisting the CBI in its investigation of the fake encounter case of Ishrat Jahan in Gujarat. Verma’s investigation said the encounter was fake and conducted by Gujarat officers to be in the good books of then Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Verma was dismissed from the service on August 30, a month before his scheduled retirement on September 30.
A bench of Justices K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy has allowed Verma to approach the Delhi High Court challenging his dismissal and said it is for the high court to consider the question as to whether the stay or vacation of dismissal order is to continue.
“We are of the view that in the facts of this case, the interests of justice would require that the order passed by the respondent dismissing the appellant is not to be implemented till one week from today,” the bench said. Verma had moved to the top court after the High Court allowed the home ministry to take action against him in the wake of a departmental inquiry that proved the charges against him, including interacting “with public media” when he was chief vigilance officer of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation, Shillong.
Verma had probed the Ishrat Jahan case of 2004 between April 2010 and October 2011.
