A court here has made strong observations against the Gurugram Police Commissioner in a civil suit pertaining to denial of promotion to a woman officer, saying that the Commissioner had made an “unholy attempt” to defeat the rights of the plaintiff and “browbeat” her, adding that the court was not expected to be a “mute spectator” at this juncture.
The matter pertains to Raj Bala, a woman police officer, who was denied promotion on account of a warning as part of disciplinary action against her last year.
After she moved the court seeking redress this year, Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) Anil Kaushik on September 7 directed the competent authority to consider her plaint as representation and pass speaking orders.
Show-cause notice
However, the plaintiff’s counsel, Mayank Raghava, informed the court this month that her representation was declined and she was, instead, served a show-cause notice for stoppage of four annual increments.
The then Deputy Commissioner of Police, Headquarters, Shashank Kumar Sawan, the Disciplinary Authority, had asked her “to be careful in the future”, on October 25, 2019, and she was later denied promotion.
Mr. Raghava, in his plea, said the ego of senior police officers was apparently hurt since she had moved the court seeking redress.
Taking strong exception to the serving of the notice, the judge observed that the “bias against the plaintiff for her approaching the court was writ large as has been revealed from the sequence of events unfolded in the case”.
Taking into account the fact that the Police Commissioner had issued the show-cause notice almost a year after the order was passed by the Disciplinary Authority and in the wake of the plaintiff moving the court, Mr. Kaushik observed that the “timing indicates naked bias against the plaintiff for her approaching this court”.
Hardeep Hooda, government pleader for the defendants, argued that the Police Commissioner was within his powers under the Punjab Police Rules, 1934, to review the order of the Disciplinary Authority and it was in “course of law”.
Court questions timing
Mr. Kaushik, however, observed that the court could not lose sight of the timing of the show-cause notice and remarked that “it is shocking that this is going on under the very nose of this court”.
Fixing the matter for hearing on October 27, Mr. Kaushik directed the Police Commissioner to file an affidavit on the next date of hearing, deposing in how many cases he has “suo motu reviewed the decisions of the disciplinary authorities subordinate to him” and in how many cases was this done when the matter was pending before the court.
