Relief to Punjab IPG Umranangal, HC quashes suspension orders

Court says IGP Paramraj Singh Umranangal was suspended in Feb 2019 and further extension, which requires confirmation by central govt, was not taken by the state

Chandigarh : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday quashed three suspension orders of inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal, who is an accused in the police firing cases of 2015 reported in the aftermath of the sacrilege incidents.

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday quashed three suspension orders of inspector general of police (IGP) Paramraj Singh Umranangal, who is an accused in the police firing cases of 2015 reported in the aftermath of the sacrilege incidents.

The suspension orders were issued on February 26, 2019, November 20, 2020, and March 22, 2021. Two suspension orders were related to the 2015 Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura police firing cases and third was related to an STF, Mohali, FIR in an NDPS case registered on November 6, 2020.

Umranangal had approached the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) against these orders but failed to get relief. In its order on February 1, 2023, CAT had dismissed his plea after which he approached the high court on February 15, 2023.

On Friday, the bench of justice Sureshwar Thakur and justice Sudeepti Sharma quashed these orders and observed that the state cannot pick and choose the rules of their “suitability” and directed that he be allowed to join services “forthwith”.

In his plea seeking restoration of his services, Umranangal had argued that the All India Services Discipline and Appeal Rules, 1969, provides that an order of suspension has to be reviewed by the review committee concerned within 60 days from the date of issuance, failing which it shall stand revoked. However, he remained suspended for almost five years now.

His first suspension order was passed on February 26, 2019, after his arrest on February 18, 2019, in the Kotkapura firing incident case in which protesters suffered injuries.

Two protesters were killed allegedly in the police firing at Behbal Kalan in the aftermath of sacrilege incidents in Bargari and Burj Jawahar Singh Wala in 2015. Umranangal is accused in both the firing incidents.

Referring to the service rules, the court observed that the intention of the framers cannot be to place the employee under suspension for years together and that was why the time-period as well as the procedure to be followed for extension is mentioned.

“(referring to various rules) it is revealed that the state government did not bother to follow the procedure which is mandatory in the case of the petitioner for the reasons best known to them. It is unfortunate to observe that on the one hand the petitioner is awarded with two gallantry awards for rendering his meritorious service in combating terrorism in the state , and on the other hand the state government has placed the petitioner under suspension for a period of almost five years without following any procedure, without any extension, without any recommendation of Central Review Committee, without any confirmation by the central government, which doubts the intention of the officers who are passing the suspension orders one after the other,” the bench observed.

The court further added that as per amendments carried out from time to time in these rules, in the case of all India service officers where a state government passes an order for suspension of a member of service it will be valid for a period of thirty days from the date from which the member is placed under suspension. Further extension for 30 days requires confirmation by the central government. In the case in hand, the petitioner was suspended in February 2019 and further extension was not taken from the central government, it added.