Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court has set aside the memo suspending Dr T. Harikrishna of the veterinary department, who was working as officer on special duty at the Telangana Sports School. He was suspended last August on allegations of sexual harassment of girls and women employees at the sports school.
Based on a news report and on receipt of a complaint from a victim on August 11, the then sports minister sent a note to take action against Harikrishna, subsequent to which the Sports Authority of Telangana State (SATS) suspended Harikrishna.
Challenging the same, Harikrishna approached the High Court. He submitted that the suspension orders did not assign the reasons and so far no charge or memo has been issued to him.
After perusing the records, the court opined that the suspension order was passed without jurisdiction or authority and without any basis.
Justice Pulla Karthik said that the Supreme Court had made it clear that the power of suspension should not be exercised in an arbitrary manner and without any reasonable ground or as vindictive misuse of power.
The judge said that the suspension order can be passed by the competent authority considering the gravity of the alleged misconduct, serious act of omission or commission and the nature of evidence available. But, in the instant case, without any inquiry and evidence, the suspension order was issued, the court observed.
