HC upholds CAT order against police official

Chennai, Sept 1 (PTI) The Madras High Court today upheld aCAT order quashing the charge-memo issued against Y JohnNicholson of the then Crime Branch CID, Egmore here statingthat he had held the post of President of Tamil Nadu FencingAssociation for four years from November 4, 2009 without priorpermission from the authority concerned. Nicholson had moved the Madras bench of CentralAdministrative Tribunal (CAT), contending that the mandatoryprovision available under Rule 13(5) of the Conduct of Ruleswould become applicable only if an officer held the (sports)post for over four years or for a full term, whichever isless. CAT quashed the charge-memo on September 13, 2014stating that he had held the post from November 4, 2009 toNovember 3, 2013 for which the mandatory provision availableunder Rule 13(5) of the Conduct of Rules is not applicable. A division bench comprising Justices A Selvam and PKalaiyarasan, upholding the CAT order said, "It is a settledprinciple of law that for deciding/quashing a charge-memo, thetribunal is not having power. But in the instant case, theperiod mentioned in the charge-memo itself is erroneous. "Even on the basis of documents filed by the petitioners(Home Secretary and DGP), this court can easily deduce thatNicholson had served as the President of the Association onlyfor two-and-a-half years, and therefore the mandatoryprovision available under Rule 13(5) of the Conduct of Rulesis not at all applicable." It said, "Under the circumstances, the charge-memo inquestion is liable to be set aside/quashed. The charge-memohad erroneously stated that he had held the post for fouryears from November 4, 2009." PTI CORR RCSCTRK