Bengaluru, Apr 25: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) bench here Thursday stayed the Election Commission order suspending IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin for checking prime minister Narendra Modi's helicopter in Odisha.
The officer from Karnataka cadre, deployed in Odisha as a general observer, was suspended on April 17 for checking Modi's helicopter in Odisha's Sambalpur in "violation" of norms for dealing with SPG protectees and sent back to the state.
The CAT maintained that during an election process while reasonable assurances of protection and security must be made available to SPG protectees, it cannot be said "they are eligible for anything and everything."
The bench also ordered issue of notice to the EC and "four others" and posted the matter for further hearing on June 6.
Mohsin had tried to check some luggage in the convoy of the Prime Minister during his campaign visit and the EC had said he had acted in violation of its existing instructions.
In its order, CAT member (Judicial) Dr K B Suresh noted there was a circular regarding the SPG protectees that they are exempted from certain examinations on certain grounds.
"We will not go into the SPG protectees guidelines as per the bluebook right now, but the rule of law must prevail," he said.
The CAT also took note of the plea of the applicant's counsel who said there were news about heavy packages unloaded from prime minister's cavalcade being taken away in other vehicle.
Questions were raised but apparently no action followed, it said.
Noting that under the Constitutional process of federal structure, even though the EC has supervisory powers over the employees under its control at that moment of time, the CAT said once they are out of it, the commission's powers would cease.
The tribunal said: "Thereforethe suspension order issued by the election commission cannot, on the face of it, lie. It is hereby stayed."
However, the CAT said it would look into this matter afresh once it received the response from the EC.
The tribunal said the applicant will be eligible to rejoin his former position under the Karnataka government "without any further ado about it".
Following the suspension, an EC source had said: "It has been laid down that SPG protectees are exempted from checking.
He (the officer) should have known the instruction being an observer. The reason for suspension is dereliction of duty."
IAS officer Mohammed Mohsin
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New Delhi, May 13 (PTI): Retail inflation eased to a nearly six-year low of 3.16 per cent in April mainly due to subdued prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses, and other protein-rich items, creating enough room for the Reserve Bank to go for another round of rate cut in the June monetary policy review.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 3.34 per cent in March and 4.83 per cent in April 2024. It was 3.15 per cent in July 2019.
NSO data showed a sharp decline of 91 basis points in food inflation in April 2025 in comparison to March 2025. The food inflation in April 2025 is the lowest since October 2021.
Food inflation in April was 1.78 per cent, lower than 2.69 per cent in the preceding month and 8.7 per cent in the year-ago month, showed data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank, which has been mandated to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side, has slashed the key interest rate by 50 basis points in two tranches (February and April) as the price situation improved.
The central bank has projected the CPI inflation for the financial year 2025-26 at 4 per cent, with Q1 at 3.6 per cent; Q2 at 3.9 per cent; Q3 at 3.8 per cent; and Q4 at 4.4 per cent.
"The significant decline in headline inflation and food inflation during the month of April 2025 is mainly attributed to decline in inflation of vegetables, pulses and products, fruits, meat and fish, personal care and effects and cereals and products," NSO said.
There was a deflation in potato (12.7 per cent), tomato (33.21 per cent), chicken (6.78 per cent) arhar (14.27 per cent), and jeera (20.79 per cent) during April on annual basis.
During April, inflation in mustard oil was at 19.6 per cent, refined oil (sunflower, soyabean) at 23.75 per cent, apple at 17 per cent, and onion at 2.94 per cent.
The rural inflation was at 2.92 per cent in April 2025 compared to 3.25 per cent in the preceding month 2025.
Urban inflation declined marginally from 3.43 per cent in March 2025 to 3.36 per cent in April.
According to the data, the highest inflation was in Kerala at 5.94 per cent while the lowest was in Telangana at 1.26 per cent.
Commenting on inflation data, Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, ICRA Limited, said that average inflation is at 3.5 per cent in FY2026, with the prints for Q2 and Q3 sharply trailing the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) projections for these quarters, allowing for an additional 75 bps of rate cuts in this calendar year.
"A 25 bps rate cut appears forthcoming in the June 2025 policy, followed by easing of 25 bps each in the August and October 2025 policy reviews.
"If the GDP growth print for Q4 FY2025 does not report an acceleration from the 6.2% seen for Q3 FY2025, the MPC may consider frontloading the rate easing, with a 50 bps cut in the upcoming review," Nayar said.
Year-on-year fuel and light inflation rate for April was 2.92 per cent as against 1.42 per cent in March.
Inflation in 'Transport and Communication' segment was higher at 3.73 per cent in April compared to 3.36 per cent in March.
Paras Jasrai, Associate Director at India Ratings and Research said the latest data points to a low inflation intensity as this was the third successive month where inflation has been lower than the target of 4 per cent.
"We expect the RBI to opt in for a 25 bp cut in policy rates in view of the fragile global economic and geopolitical environment in the June 2025 monetary policy review. The cumulative rate cut in FY26 would depend on the pace of decline in inflation and evolving inflation-growth dynamics," Jasrai said.
The price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states/UTs by field staff of NSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).