The Maharashtra state Cabinet on Tuesday recommended that State Information Commissioner Ramanand Tiwari be suspended after he was accused of involvement in the Adarsh Housing Society scam.

Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said at a press conference that the Cabinet had sent the recommendation to the governor. "We have submitted enough grounds why we think his appointment will not be in the interests of the State."

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar read out the text of the cabinet decision to media which said the Cabinet unanimously resolved to recommend the suspension of Tiwari, who had cleared the files relating to the housing society during his tenure as secretary of the Urban Development Department and had also granted raise in the Floor Space Index (FSI) to the society. His son was also a beneficiary of a flat in the controversial society.

Tiwari was under pressure from the state government to quit his post after the scam came to the fore and his name was linked to the scam, but he refused to yield to the pressure and flatly refused to quit and instead proceeded for a long leave till March 31 without his application being approved. The leave application was rejected by the governor and Tiwari was told to resume duty, which he again refused.

Chavan said that he issued an order that Tiwari should not attend office until the inquiry into the housing scam is completed. "It's not in the interest of the state government to allow Tiwari to continue in office. On the basis of available documents, there are enough grounds to take action against Tiwari and the state governor would send his report in this issue to the Supreme Court which would decide on the termination of his services," Chavan added.

Chavan said that the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers are protected under Article 311 of the Constitution, but "he (Tiwari) is retired and has been appointed for political considerations. Therefore action has been initiated against him as per the Right to Information (Act)rules."

Last week, another former bureaucrat Subash Lalla who was a member of the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (MSHRC) resigned from his post after the name of his kin surfaced in the list of the beneficiaries in the Adarsh Housing Society. Lalla was secretary in the chief minister's office when the society files were being processed in his office.