Archana Ramasundaram (File pic)
The Supreme Court has restrained Archana Ramasundaram, a senior Tamil Nadu cop, from starting work as India's first woman Additional Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI.
The top court is hearing a public interest litigation against the 56-year-old IPS officer's deputation to the CBI, an appointment that has been controversial since it was made in February this year.
On Thursday evening, the J Jayalalithaa government suspended Ms Ramasundaram, hours after the 1980 batch officer joined work at the CBI in Delhi. The state government said she did not have its consent to take up her new assignment and accused her of "deserting" her post of head of the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board. It asked her to report back to Chennai.
Sources close to Ms Ramasundaram said she joined the CBI assignment as she was asked to immediately report by the director of the agency, which has an acute shortage of senior officers. They said Ms Ramasundaram had "pleaded with the state government for three months to relieve her," but she got no response.
Ms Ramasundaram also reportedly wanted to join the Delhi posting as her father, who lives in the capital, suffered a stroke last September.
There is speculation that the Tamil Nadu government's allegedly unbending stance on Ms Ramasundaram deputation could have political undertones. Her husband, S Ramasundaram, was a senior IAS officer in a key post when Ms Jayalalithaa's arch rival and DMK chief M Karunanidhi was chief minister. He sought voluntary retirement before Ms Jayalalithaa took over. The new Chief Minister had scrapped the project he was working on.
The Centre has the power to appoint bureaucrats on deputation without a state's consent. Ms Ramasundram's appointment was cleared by the Appointments Committee of Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister.
It was a controversial appointment. While CBI Director Ranjit Sinha had supported it, the Central Vigilance Commission, the country's apex anti-corruption watchdog, had recommended the name of R K Pachnanda, a 1982-batch officer of the West Bengal cadre.
The PIL in the Supreme Court challenges the recommendation of the CVC being ignored.