Guj IPS officer sacked for 5-year unauthorised leave

The Centre has terminated Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Samiullah Ansari for allegedly remaining on unauthorised leave for five years, which it said should be taken as his “deemed resignation”.

The service has been terminated by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) through a notification issued on December 31 last year. “The president is pleased to direct that Samiullah Ansari, a member of the Indian Police Service (IPS), borne on the cadre of Gujarat (Batch-1992), is deemed to have resigned from the service with effect from 1.10.2010 in terms of rule 7(2)(a) of All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955,” the notification said.

The notification came as part of the ongoing legal battle between Ansari, who is believed to be in the USA, and the Gujarat government on the issue of benefits of Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS).

As the state government rejected his VRS application, Ansari moved the Central Administration Tribunal (CAT) and challenged the state government’s decision. Special counsel in CAT for the state government, Joy Mathew, said he had received the MHA’s notification of recently.

“I have received that said notification by the MHA a few days back. We will submit it before the CAT in due course. Through this notification, the Centre has considered Ansari’s five years of absence as ‘deemed resignation’. Ansari can file his reply on it,” said Mathew.

The matter came before the CAT when the Gujarat government had issued a notice to Ansari in July 2014 for allegedly remaining on unauthorised leave since October 2010.

After the notice, Ansari applied for VRS, claiming that he has served for 20 years, which is required to get benefits under VRS scheme.

When his plea was rejected by the state government, he moved the CAT and challenged this order in November last year. Ansari was Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP)-Traffic Ahmedabad in 2002, when he took one year leave to pursue a course at IIM, Bengaluru. He resumed his duty in 2003.

During the subsequent arguments till date in the tribunal, the state government has claimed that Ansari had once again applied for a sabbatical in 2005 to pursue his Ph.D at North Eastern University in Boston, US. He had also received a funding of $8,000 under a Central government scheme to pursue his Ph.D abroad.

As per government affidavits in the tribunal, Ansari resumed his service in May 2010. However, upon his request, he was once again granted leave of 92 days within one month of joining. Though he was supposed to join back on October 2010, he never did.

During arguments, state government told the tribunal that Ansari has settled in the US and serving as a professor at a university there and he still owes $18,000 to them.