Chhattisgarh HC issues notice to state and former IAS Alok Shukla, demands response in three weeks

Raipur: Chhattisgarh high court has sought reply from state government and retired IAS official Alok Shukla in connection with his contractual appointment within three weeks.

The bench of justice Goutam Bhaduri on Wednesday ordered state government and retired IAS officer to file their reply within three weeks related to the Shukla’s contractual appointment.

Advocate duo Gary Mukhopadhyay and Vivek Sharma appeared for the petitioner.

Bharatiya Janata Party leader and the petitioner Naresh Chandra Gupta had filed writ petition in the high court challenging the contractual appointment of retired IAS officer Alok Shukla.

The petitioner stated that the retired IAS official Alok Shukla, who was accused in multi-crore PDS scam and was allegedly involved in corruption on the name of distribution of subsidized rice at Rs 1 per kilogram.

The contractual appointment of retired IAS official Alok Shukla is unconstitutional, the petitioner maintained.

As per the contractual recruitment rules 2013, if any departmental or other investigation is pending against the retired officer, then post retirement contractual appointment cannot be given to the officer.

The retired IAS officer Alok Shukla is one of the accused of multi-crore public distribution scheme (PDS) scam surfaced during the BJP regime in the state. Alok Shukla retired in May this year. 

Chhattisgarh high court on October last year granted bail to Iretired AS officer Alok Shukla, who was one of the accused of multi-crore public distribution scheme (PDS) scam surfaced during the BJP regime in the state.

The EOW/ACB has been investigating the PDS scam worth Rs 36,000 crore since 2015. The investigating agency had made accused 27 people and 17 people were arrested including two IAS officers Alok Shukla and Anil Tuteja.

Shukla, a 1986 batch IAS officer, who served as deputy election commissioner from 2009 to May 2014, was the principal secretary of state’s food department when the alleged PDS scam took place.

In July 2015, BJP led state government had referred to the Centre the cases against the two IAS officers for prosecution on the charges of cheating, criminal conspiracy and provision of prevention of corruption act.

Subsequently, the Centre granted sanction for their prosecution nearly two years ago. EOW/ACB had filed supplementary charge sheets against both IAS officers on December 5, 2018, just six days before assembly polls. 

Earlier, On August 3, 2019, the high court had granted bail to the then civil supplies corporation manager Shivshankar Bhatt while the high court had granted anticipatory bail to IAS officer Anil Tuteja on April 2019.