CHANDIGARH: Nearly a week after DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar argued that the CBI can initiate action only against central government employees in Chandigarh, a division bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Thursday asked under whose authority an IPS officer falls and sought the All India Services Act and related rules.
During the hearing, the bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagoo and Justice Sanjiv Barry questioned, “The state government has the power to initiate disciplinary proceedings, but in the end, who is the final authority?”
Senior Advocate Randeep Singh Rai, appearing for Bhullar, said the officer belongs to the Punjab cadre of the IPS and therefore the competent authority is the state of Punjab. The court observed that in the case of IAS officers serving in Punjab, service-related files are forwarded to the state government for approval.
“You need to get approval from the authority under whose service the public servant is,” the bench remarked.
The matter is expected to come up for further hearing after the lunch break.
