Kerala: IAS officer facing action for supporting Modi gets court relief

The apex  court also issued notice to Kerala's Congress-led UDF government, asking it to respond to Dr B Ashok's petition challenging the action taken against him.

The Indian Administrative Service officer had written a newspaper article asking why  Modi, who was the Chief Minister of Gujarat at the time, should not be allowed to visit Thiruvananthapuram's Sivagiri Mutt during an ongoing controversy on the subject.  

The mutt had invited  Modi for a visit during a function, which the Left-led LDF had opposed observing that  since he had been unable stop the 2002 riots, he should not be allowed into the temple.

In his article, Dr Ashok argued that the riots should not be considered a reason for such a course of action.

"It is true that the Gujarat Government might not have been effective in preventing the killings (in 2002) but such genocidal riots had followed the assassination of Indira Gandhi," he wrote. In the article, he also criticised Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi for not accepting the invitation to speak at a function at the mutt.

The Congress-led UDF government initiated disciplinary proceedings against Dr Ashok, who at the time, was the Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala Veterinary University.

In 2011, the state government had decided to sack Dr Ashok as vice-chancellor for alleged violation of service rules, but the Kerala High Court had reinstated him.

But in 2013, the High Court refused to stop the government action against him.

The officer then appealed to the top Court, saying as the vice chancellor of the university, he did not violate any service rules.