The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to consider a plea against appointment of Gujarat cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as Delhi police commissioner, just three days before his retirement.
A bench presided over by Justice D Y Chandrachud posted a pending writ petition for consideration on next Friday, November 26.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation submitted before the bench that he would file a Special Leave Petition against the Delhi HC judgement by Monday.
The court said it would take up both the petitions on Friday. The court also asked Bhushan to serve the copy on the counsel of Union government as well as Asthana to obviate any chances of delay in hearing.
During the brief hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for the Centre and Asthana respectively, objected to pendency of writ petition saying the issue had already been decided by the High Court. They also said the court, however, may consider a plea challenging the High Court's judgement.
On October 12, the High Court had dismissed a plea against appointment of Asthana, a 1984-batch officer, as the Delhi police commissioner on July 27, just before his superannuation on July 31.
The court had then declared that the Union government had power, jurisdiction and authority to make inter-cadre deputation of officers in public interest and the top court's judgements in Prakash Singh case on appointment of police heads would not apply to Union Territories.
It had also said the petitioners --advocate Sadre Alam and NGO CPIL led by advocate Bhushan-- have not been able to make out a case calling for interference or even remotely demonstrate that there is any blot in the service career of Asthana, making him unsuitable for the post of Delhi police commissioner.
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(Published 18 November 2021, 08:59 IST)
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