Delhi High Court Sets Aside Order Transferring IPS Officer Amit Lodha’s Case From CAT Patna To Delhi

The Delhi High Court has set aside an order transferring the case concerning disciplinary proceedings initiated against 1998-batch Bihar cadre IPS officer Amit Lodha from Central Administrative Tribunal, Patna to the national capital.

A division bench of Justice V Kameswar Rao and Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta allowed Bihar Government’s pleas and quashed the order passed by the Chairman of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi in March transferring an original application filed by Lodha, that was pending before the Patna bench, to the Principal Bench at New Delhi.

The bench also quashed the Chairman’s order which had retained another original application moved by the IPS officer before the Principal Bench. Lodha rose to fame after the release of Netflix series “Khakee: The Bihar Chapter.”

“In view of the foregoing discussion, we set aside the orders dated March 2, 2023 and March 27, 2023 passed by the Chairman in PT Nos. 06/2023 and 27/2023, respectively. The same are revived on the Board of the Chairman, Central Administrative Tribunal, who shall consider the Transfer Petitions afresh by hearing the counsel for the parties and pass a reasoned and speaking order in accordance with law,” the court said.

It added that till such time, no hearings shall be held in the original applications.

The disciplinary proceedings were initiated against Lodha last year alleging that when he was posted as Inspector General of Police in Gaya, he adopted a biased attitude and provided under benefits and reliefs to some officers in various departmental proceedings.

Other charges against him included “alleged corruption and gross irregularities in his work, indicative of his indiscipline, arbitrariness, ignorance and incompetence towards his duty which is derogatory to dignitary of a Senior Police Officer.”

Lodha had challenged the said disciplinary proceedings before the Patna bench of CAT. However, later he sought transfer to Delhi on the ground that the entire action in initiating the disciplinary proceedings was ill motivated, in order to deprive him of his promotion to the next post of Additional Director General of Police.

He thus submitted that it would be in the interest of justice for the case to be heard outside the State of Bihar as his case was against the state authorities and was also sensitive in nature.

The transfer petition was allowed by the Chairman of the Tribunal and Lodha’s original application was transferred from Patna Bench to the Principal Bench at New Delhi.

Setting aside the transfer, the bench said that it was incumbent upon the Chairman to pass a reasoned order evidencing the reasons for his decision, in the interest of justice.

“…we have already held that the order passed on March 2, 2023 in PT No. 06/2023 is devoid of any reasoning, which is one of the cornerstones of the principles of natural justice, more so, when the petitioners- the State of Bihar had contested the Transfer Petition. The issue being similar in this writ petition, this order dated March 17, 2023 passed by the Chairman is also untenable,” the court said.

Title: STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. v. AMIT LODHA & ORS.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 939

Click Here To Read Order