The Narendra Modi government on Monday issued a showcause notice to Alapan Bandyopadhyay, who retired as Bengal chief secretary in the evening, and is contemplating unspecified action against him for defying the order to report to the Centre on Monday.

“Suitable action is being contemplated by the Centre for defying the DoPT (the department of personnel and training) order and a showcause notice has already been issued,” a source said on Monday evening.

However, going by the experience in the case of the IPS officers the Centre tried to call back on central deputation from Bengal in December, the scope of such disciplinary action is limited, bureaucrats said.

According to these sources, all deputation is done in consultation between the Centre and the states. If it is felt that disciplinary action needs to be initiated by the Centre, it has to be routed through the cadre-controlling authority, which, in this case, is Bengal.

On Monday, the DoPT had sent a letter to Bandyopadhyay asking him to report to the Centre on Tuesday morning at 10. This was in response to chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s letter to Prime Minister Modi stating that her government “cannot release, and is not releasing its chief secretary at this critical hour, on the basis of our understanding that the earlier order of extension, issued after lawful consultation in accordance with applicable laws, remains operational and valid”.

After Mamata’s media conference around 5pm, the Centre sought to project to its ecosystem that this was a victory for the Modi government as the chief minister had done a U-turn by getting Bandyopadhyay to retire hours after asking the Prime Minister to confirm the extension.