Supreme Court stays action against Kerala IAS officer for praising Narendra Modi

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed proceedings, initiated by the UDF government in Kerala, against an IAS officer for praising Narendra Modi in 2013 in a newspaper article and has asked the state government to explain why it initiated proceeded against the officer on this count.

The IAS officer, Dr B Ashok, had in his article defended a proposed trip by the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi to the Sivagiri Mutt at Varkala in Thiruvananthapuram district to inaugurate a spiritual cultural conclave.

The state government had opposed the mutt’s invitation to Modi on the ground that he had failed to stop the 2002 Gujarat riots as chief minister. Rahul Gandhi had declined the mutt’s invitation.

The IAS officer had written: “It is true that the Gujarat government might not have been effective in preventing the killings (in 2002) but such genocidal riots had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi.” He had also flayed the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for turning down the invite.

The UDF government had initiated disciplinary proceedings against him. He was then Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University. Though he had approached the High Court that had refused to restrain the government from holding the inquiry against him.

The state government sacked him as vice-chancellor for alleged violation of service rules, but the Kerala High Court reinstated him. In August 2015, the High Court upheld the disciplinary proceedings initiated against him. On Tuesday, however, a bench headed by Justice J Chelameswar, issued notice on his petition challenging the High Court order, and stayed the disciplinary proceedings against him.

In his appeal before the top court, argued by senior advocate KV Vishwanathan and advocate Vivek Chib, the IAS officer argued that he had not violated any service rules as the vice-chancellor of the university or any other civil service rules. He urged the top court to quash the proceedings against him.

The bureaucrat had written an article titled ‘What if Modi comes to Sivagiri’, on April 24, 2013, in the Kerala Kaumudi daily. This article had prompted the UDF government to censure him and also issue a chargesheet against him on the ground that it amounted to conduct unbecoming of an IAS officer.