SC stays HC order removing Bidari

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of a Karnataka High Court order that directed the  replacement of then state police chief Shankar M Bidari with incumbent A R Infant, but left the issue as to who would be the next DGP for the State government to decide.

A bench of Justices Aftab Alam and C K Prasad referred the matter back to the High Court with a direction it should look into the issue afresh and adjudicate upon it before May 31, the date when both Bidari and Infant would superannuate.

The apex court stayed the HC’s March 30 order, concerning words relating to Bidari as “worse than Saddam Hussain or Muammar Gaddafi” for the alleged atrocities committed by the STF team led by him during the hunt to nab forest brigand Veerappan in 2004.

The Bench quashed the March 16 order of the Central Administrative Tribunal which had been upheld by the HC.

The apex court Bench –which was taken through the report of the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) and Justice Sadashiva panel – noted that both had found nothing against Bidari.

“Before us, the full reports of Justice Sadashiva report and the NHRC were placed. Prima facie, we have found it difficult to note that there is any adverse comment against Bidari, much less any indictment,” the Supreme Court Bench said.
After hearing the arguments from counsel appearing for Karnataka government, Bidari and Infant, the court noted that the full report of Justice Sadashiva panel, which had inquired into the charges of atrocities by NHRC’s direction, were not put before the High Court.

“The presumption that runs through HC judgment is that Justice Sadashiva report indicted Bidari for his role for committing atrocities on the people on Karnataka and Tamil Nadu border (during the drive to nab Verrappan). Admittedly, neither Sadashiva panel report nor the NHRC report were placed before the HC except that something was brought in the form of some affidavits filed by NGOs before the panel which were annexed by Infant before the Central Administrative Tribunal,” the Bench said.
The apex court said it was open for the State government to decide upon as to who would be the next police chief in view of its order.

Senior counsel Altaf Ahmed, appearing for Infant, read out the portion of the panel report which, according to him, noted that Bidari was deputy commandant of special task force when atrocities were committed and as many as 66 persons were killed in encounters of which 36 were suspected killings.

“It is a too wide a proposition. He was incharge of operation. In that case, in every encounter, the DGP is to be held responsible,” the Bench said.