Dhumal case: Outgoing HP Guv passes buck to CM
Pratibha Chauhan
Tribune News Service
Shimla, January 20
Himachal Pradesh Governor Urmila Singh today returned the file relating to grant of prosecution sanction against former Chief Minister PK Dhumal. She said the government could take a decision at its own level as her consent in the case was not required.
Urmila Singh, whose term comes to an end on January 24, has put the ball back in the court of the government. Sources said having sought legal opinion from experts on the issue of granting permission to the Home department to prosecute Dhumal, the Governor came to the conclusion that her consent was not required.
She was informed that in several other similar cases against some former chief ministers and prominent politicians no prosecution sanction was sought from the Governor in other states.
In a deviation from her earlier decision taken on April 2, 2014 when she had granted permission to prosecute Dhumal in a case filed by Vigilance Bureau against the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), Urmila Singh decided to tread a more cautious path his time.
While last time she had taken the decision at a very short notice, this time she took her own time to arrive at a final decision, which most termed as a cautious approach considering that she is all set to resume her political career back home in Madhya Pradesh.
It was on January 2 this month that the state government had sent the case for seeking permission to prosecute Dhumal to the Governor.
The case in which prosecution sanction had been sought pertains to the permission granted by Dhumal as CM to retired IPS officer AN Sharma to rejoin service even after his resignation from service had been accepted.
Sharma had sought retirement as he was keen to contest the 2007 Assembly election from Nadaun constituency in Hamirpur but failed to secure the BJP ticket. Later, keen to continue in service, he filed a case before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) and obtained a stay which he later withdrew to make a request before the BJP regime headed by Dhumal, which was accepted. Now the plea taken by the IPS officer is that he had withdrawn his resignation on November 20, 2007, a day before he was to retire and the government had paid him entire salary for that month.
