New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday, August 18, objected to the plea challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner, and argued that it has become a practice of the “so-called integrity keepers” to challenge any and every government appointment, news reports said.
A former officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Asthana was appointed Delhi Police Commissioner on July 27, just four days before his retirement on July 31. This is one of the very few instances when an IPS officer outside of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory cadre has been appointed as a Delhi Police chief. Asthana is a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS officer.
A bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh heard a plea filed by one Sadre Alam through advocate B.S. Bagga, challenging the order issued by the Union government granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service to Asthana.
“What is the locus of the petitioner? This is essentially a PIL in a service matter which the Supreme Court says ‘No’. There are any number of judgements and Prakash Singh (SC judgement) is on DGs. Delhi Police is controlled and operated in a different mechanism altogether,” Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma submitted, according to Indian Express.
According to LiveLaw, Bagga submitted that Asthana’s appointment by the Ministry of Home Affairs violates the directions laid out by the Supreme Court in the case The directions say that empanelment to the AGMUT cadre must be done by the UPSC, requisite residual tenure of the officer in question must be a minimum of six months, and the appointment must be for a minimum tenure of two years, irrespective of the date of superannuation.
However, as per the report, Additional Solicitor General Chetan Sharma argued that the Delhi Police operates very differently and the Prakash Singh judgment is not applicable in the case.
The Delhi high court has not issued any notice as of yet and and asked if any other plea concerning his appointment is pending before any court.
The court will hear the matter on August 24.