Bengaluru, July 4 -- The Karnataka high court on Thursday termed extreme the state government's decision to suspend five police officers in connection with the June 4 stampede outside the M Chinnaswamy stadium, questioned whether a lesser penalty such as "transferring the officers to another post" might have been more appropriate.

A bench of justices SG Pandit and TM Nadaf posed the questions to state's advocate general Shashikiran Shetty while hearing the appeal filed by the Karnataka government challenging an order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on July 1 quashing the suspension of IPS officer Vikash Kumar Vikash, who was the additional commissioner of police (West), Bengaluru at the time of his suspension.

Termin...