New Delhi: The Delhi high court on September 26 refused to stay the Union government’s dismissal of IPS officer Satish Chandra Verma – who assisted the CBI in investigating the Ishrat Jahan encounter killing – a month before his retirement.The Supreme Court had, earlier this month, kept in abeyance this order of the Union government. It had asked the Delhi high court to decide the matter.“It is for the high court to consider the question as to whether order of stay of implementation of order passed by disciplinary authority is to be continued beyond a period of one week,” a bench of Justices K.M. Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy had added.Verma had probed the Ishrat Jahan case between April 2010 and October 2011 and it was on the basis of his investigation report that a Special Investigation Team had held that the encounter was “fake”. The Gujarat high court eventually directed the CBI to probe the case and avail itself of Verma’s services.Bar and Bench has reported that a high court division bench of Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva and Tushar Rao Gedela has now held that at this stage, the order of the IPS officer’s termination does not warrant any interference as he is to superannuate on September 30.“Consequently, we are not inclined to stay or interdict the order of dismissal dated 30.08.2022 at this stage… It is clarified that in case petitioner is successful in the writ petition petitioner shall be entitled to all consequential benefits of his superannuation in accordance with rules,” the court said, according to Bar and Bench.Issuing notices on Verma’s plea, the high court has given the Union government a deadline of eight weeks and has listed the case on January 24, 2023.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who had argued for Verma at the Supreme Court, had noted at the apex court hearing that the January date was much after the day the IPS officer was supposed to retire.The government has claimed to have initiated action against Verma in 2016 over an interview he gave to a television channel as the Chief Vigilance Officer of the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation in Shillong. When Verma moved high court challenging the decision, the Union home ministry dismissed him from service.If the dismissal of Verma comes into effect, he will not be entitled to pension and other benefits.