Bengaluru, Mar 4: The Karnataka High Court has issued a notice to the state government in connection with the denial of retirement benefits to a retired deputy commissioner of commercial taxes who had fought against the illegal iron ore lobby.
Justice G Narendra also directed the state to respond to the notice before March 9, stating the reasons for withholding the officer’s retirement benefits.
Advocate Ramananda, appearing for the retired officer Josephat Andrews, explained that the single-judge bench also warned the government of stringent action.
Petitioner Josephat Andrews said his retirement benefits amounting to Rs 25.88 lakh were being withheld since 2014.
In 2009, Andrews detected a huge scam involving Vijaya Leasing, a company associated with former minister Gali Janardhan Reddy. Immediately he wrote to his higher officials explaining to them how the department was owed Rs 1,400 crore in taxes by the company. Immediately after that, Andrews was transferred to Bengaluru.
The media exposed the scam in 2012. Thereafter, to harass the officer, Andrews was served notice for allegedly not conducting an inspection of M/s Vijaya Leasing, which was controlled by the family of then tourism minister Gali Janardhana Reddy, on July 11, 2012. He was discharged by a full departmental enquiry.
The petitioner was issued a second show cause notice on Jan 29, 2014 on the same charges. Before his retirement, he was docked two increments, denied promotional benefits and his pension was reduced without following due process.
He was served yet another notice with charges that he did not inspect goods vehicles, and an order was passed on April 30, 2019 reducing his pension by 5 per cent, an unprecedented punitive action.
This order was quashed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which also ordered payment of retirement benefits to Andrews within five months. However, the benefits were not released to him.
“Rule 214 of the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (KCSR) make it clear that no enquiry can be held four years after an officer’s retirement. Belying all statutory rules and precedents of the Supreme Court, Josephat Andrews’ retirement benefits were withheld for five years. Andrews therefore approached the High Court,” advocate Ramananda explained.
Josephat Andrews recalled to Deccan Chronicle that although mining activity was in full swing in 2008, the commercial tax department maintained that it had nothing to do with mining. “I travelled to Gujarat, Maharashtra and Bellary to investigate. I found tax evasion of thousands of crores. When I visited M/s the Vijaya Leasing facility – it was operating from an old oil mill premises–within 20 minutes I got calls from Ali, a person claiming to be the personal assistant of Gali Janardhan Reddy. He told me to get out of the premises as it belonged to his boss. Then calls came from minister Sreeramulu and MLA Nagendra.
Within minutes 200-300 rowdies gathered around the building and my superior asked me to come back. Instead of filing a police complaint and forming a special team to deal with the situation, the department transferred me to Bengaluru,” he explained.
Talking about the High Court directive, Josephat Andrews said, “I have suffered a lot. Instead of getting a reward for increasing revenues by Rs 2,000 crore, I was punished.”
“Whoever lives in Hindustan and has respect for its traditions, are all Hindus. Muslims may have different ways of performing prayers, but their nationality is Hindu. All Hindus are accountable for Hindustan,” Mr. Bhagwat told aHindu Sammelan' here.
Comments
Your topic is outdated... people know your evil intention to make peaceful hindus and muslims fight each other..
It would be better for you to look Who is our CREATOR and how he wants our life to be lived rather than only creating evils in the society...
the word 'Hind' in arabic means 'India\.. in that context , what he said is correct.. all indian nationals are Hindu nationals , irrespective of their religion.. there is no religion named 'Hinduism\"
Name 'hinduism' term used by british for easy survey.. other than Muslims and christans, all others included under 'hindu' label."
Mr. Chaddi guru please shut up your mouth. Suggest to think at least 5 times before your speak
India does not belong to any communal group. Only freedom fighters and their alliance permitted to give any comments advise. chaddi desh drohi has no right to talk about HINDUSTAN.
Jai Hind!
Who r u to decide who is who?
If u go to Kerala and Tamilnadu they don't understand word Hindusthan....He He He....
So Modi slogan India First will change to Hindu First. Eventually it will turn to sangha first. Looks like he is on drug. RSS has accumulated and looted large sum of Indian money since Modi came to power. CBI has to investigate every RSS member account.
I dont find anything wrong in this . Ofcourse we can also be called Hindus .as Hindusim is not a religion , it is a way of life and people staying in a geographical area ..we Muslims have lot of tradition and culture imbibed by our hindu ancestors , dargah worhsip is also one among that ... we are hindus Mr Mohan bhagwath ... hindus or bharatiya is fine with me . you guys belongs to sanathan dharma ... we belong to islam .. but i strongly believe we are hindus ...
WHO IS THE HELL YOU TO DICIDE, YOU ARE A JUST TERRORIST GO AND FIGHT IN BORDER,
I am working is Gulf.... and every Indian here is called HINDI irrespective of which religion he belongs to... So what's a big deal...
By the way Hindu/Hindus is not the real name of the religion. It is called Sanathana Dharm... Unfortunately loads don't know this fact.
Hindu/Hindus is the name given by foreign invaders who came to India in the past.
Correct me if I am wrong
Which nationality his balls belong ???????????????????
Ajjer na posa raaga surand.......aklakulu benpunu aklakul thinpunu hindu aanda daane muslim aanda daane ? .ajjere jankle badhkare budle...chaddi nuppu korpujji....
Its Great to hear from him Mr. Bhagavat about Hinduism why he reminded only about Muslims( may be upcoming UP Election) why not Dalit and Cristians why he spared them from Hinduism by the way if you study the deep root of Hinduism you will never find its a religion its a practice of all culture and morals of the land called Hindustan those who were living in the bank of Sindh and mohanjedaro in the earlier centuries used to calls Hindus people. Now RSS want to re write the history of Mughal kings are may be called Hindu emperors the easy example like Akbar the great.
In the first place this person and his RSS supported British rule in India then what the hell is he knows about Hindu culture.....afterwards his party man killed Mahathma Gandhi....terrible people......but he does not have any right to teach Muslims what to do and what not to do.....Muslims know how to respect one another's religion and tradition....He should mind his own business....
Mohan Bhagwat should be an Indian and respect all Indians first. He should denounce statements from various sanghis on patriotism of non-Hindus. Mohan Bhagwat should respect Indian constitution and urge all the hate mongers to respect it.
Poor old man does not know what & who is a HINDU. It is nowhere mentioned in the so called scriptures they believe. After all the name HINDU was given by MUSLIMS. Pack of Jokers!!!
People live in France are called French
People live in Briton are called British
People live in Indonesia are called Indonesians.
This Sanghi have no idea at all what we call ourself?
Those live in India are called as Indians
Those live in Bharath are called as Bharatiya
Those live in Hindustan are called as Hindustani
Not all Hindus. But, we have a majority population who are Hindus.
Do not forget that all mankind born as Muslim... (Adam A.S)
Take time to study about Islam....
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