After keeping him waiting for over a year, the state government has sanctioned a two-year leave to IPS officer Amitabh Thakur so that he can pursue an academic course at Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L).

The state government, through an order on June 8, sanctioned Thakur extraordinary leave, after the officer fought a prolonged legal battle. Thakur had twice moved the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court and thrice the Central Administrative Tribunal. At present, he is posted as SP (Intelligence) in Faizabad.

A 1992-batch IPS officer, Thakur had appeared for CAT in 2008. He was selected for a four-year course of Fellow Programme in Management (FPM) at IIM-L on April 24, 2008 and asked to join on June 12. Since he had to seek permission for a leave to pursue the course and the procedure was likely to take some time, Thakur requested the IIM authorities for an extension.

Thakur’s wife Nutan said, “He had dispatched three letters to the Principal Secretary (Home) and the DGP, seeking permission for study or extraordinary leave. The letters were sent on April 30 and August 28 in 2008 and on March 25, this year.” Since Thakur did not receive any response, he moved the Lucknow Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal on April 7. The tribunal ordered the state government to decide his pending leave application within two weeks. Thakur, however, had to file a contempt petition with the tribunal and move the High Court simultaneously against the government for not adhering to the tribunal order. Principal Secretary (Home) Fateh Bahadur, finally, issued a letter on May 22 to Thakur, intimating him about the rejection of his application.

... contd.