The Karnataka High Court on Monday stayed a show- cause notice, issued by the State government on October 27, 2018, to senior IPS officer R.P. Sharma for writing a letter to the Chief Secretary and others in March 2018 as the president of IPS (Karnataka) Officers’ Association.
The stay order will be in force till the Bengaluru bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal decides his plea against the show cause notice.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Ravi Malimath and Mohammad Nawaz gave the decision on a petition filed by Mr. Sharma, after the tribunal had declined to stay the operation of the show cause notice during the pendency of his plea before it.
Pointing out that he had written the letter as president of the association after deliberating through email with several members of the association after a person had stabbed Karnataka Lokayukta, he contended that the show cause notice, terming his action of writing letter as “misconduct”, is being issued after a gap of seven months as an attempt to scuttle his chance of being recommended for the President’s police medal for distinguished service.
In his letter, he had requested the then Chief Secretary to convene a meeting to imbibe professional values among police force and for evolving a strategy to conduct free and fair elections to the State Assembly.
