By News18
The Karnataka High Court on Thursday asked the state government if the suspension of senior IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash, who faced the action in the wake of a fatal stampede in Bengaluru last month, was necessary.
The High Court鈥檚 observation came while it was hearing the Siddaramaiah government鈥檚 plea challenging the quashing of Vikash鈥檚 suspension order by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
The High Court said the question is whether suspension was necessary in light of the allegations that crowd management measures failed, or if some other course of action, such as a transfer, would have been sufficient. It asked the state government whether options like a transfer were considered instead of suspension.
Advocate General (AG) Shashi Kiran Shetty, appearing for the state government, defended the suspension order, saying it was a 鈥渃lear case of dereliction of duty鈥, making it a 鈥渇it case鈥 for suspension.
The next hearing in the matter will take place on July 9.
The CAT on Tuesday quashed the Karnataka government鈥檚 suspension order against Vikash, who faced the action in the wake of a fatal stampede here last month.
The CAT also observed that the police are neither 鈥淕od鈥 nor 鈥淢agician鈥 to manage massive crowds at short notice, while holding Royal Challengers Bengaluru 鈥減rima facie responsible鈥 for the stampede outside Chinnaswamy Stadium on June 4.