CRPF demotes IGP as J&K high court rejects petition

New Delhi: In the first of its kind action, CRPF Inspector General SS Sandhu has been demoted as Deputy Inspector General after the Jammu and Kashmir High Court upheld a decision of Union home ministry which found discrepancies in his physical fitness record. The order for his demotion was issued by the CRPF Directorate on Tuesday and Sandhu, who is a direct recruit officer of the paramilitary force, was sent to Silchar in Assam with immediate effect. [caption id=“attachment_1375569” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  CRPF official demoted. Reuters[/caption] Last week, the Jammu and Kashmir High Court had upheld a decision of the home ministry which had ordered demotion of Sandhu. However, he challenged the move in the court which had granted an interim stay. According to a CRPF official, it is for the first time in the history of 74-year-old three-lakh strong CRPF that a top rung officer has been demoted. In its order, the Srinagar bench of the high court had dismissed Sandhu’s allegation of “mala fides and malice” being perpetrated against him in this case. Sandhu had approached the high court for relief after the home ministry when RK Singh was the home secretary had declared him unfit and hence ineligible to be promoted as an Inspector General. “Though the learned counsel for the petitioner (Sandhu) has sought to rake the issue of malice and mala fide, but, given the demeanour of the petitioner that he has not only misled the Home Secretary, but has suppressed and concealed material facts from this Court, the plea of mala fides and malice has to be taken with a pinch of salt,” the court said. “In any case, no such particulars have been supplied in the writ petition to establish mala fides,” justice Ali Mohammad Magrey said in the 29 January order. The order said that whatever had been discussed in the case, the court did not find “any merit” in his petition and is accordingly dismissed. Sandhu, a direct recruit CRPF cadre officer, was posted as Inspector General (Operations) in Srinagar when orders for his demotion were issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs early last year. The court has, however, given an opportunity to Sandhu by allowing him to present himself before a fresh physical and medical fitness selection board within a fortnight of the issuance of this order. The court also ruled that if Sandhu is found to be fit in this test, to be held by an AIIMS-led medical board, he “shall be promoted as Inspector General retrospectively from the date such promotion was earlier released in his favour with all consequential benefits”. PTI