MUMBAI - In a serious blow to the Maharashtra government, a division bench of the Bombay High Court consisting of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice J.P. Devadhar on Friday quashed the extension given to state's Director General of Police (DGP) P.S. Pasricha and Mumbai Police Commissioner D.N. Jadhav.
In a strongly worded 59-page judgment the two judges came down heavily on the state government over the three months extensions given to Pasricha and Jadhav.
The judges who were disposing off a writ petition filed by a journalist, R.R. Tripati, and activist Gaurang Damani who had argued extensively that the extensions were not only contrary to the service rules that governed the members of the All India Services but "were arbitrary and discriminatory and based on extraneous circumstances."
Taking the state government to task the judges said, "The government has neither pleaded nor argued that Pasricha and Jadhav are indispensable to the force and also that there are no officers in position who are eligible and capable for being selected to the post of DGP and CP."
These extensions do not satisfy the basic ingredients of the relevant provisions and instructions issued by the government itself for grant of extensions and such extensions are "arbitrary" the judges added in their judgment.
"The records do not reflect that any reasons were provided or even considered by the governments as to why Jadhav may not be given re-employment and that the case of Pasricha was not at all covered under the rule. The relevant considerations as emerged from the rules were not considered while irrelevant or extraneous considerations were taken into account during the decision making process," the judges said.
Quashing the order, the judges said that the reasons cited by the government "in public interest" was "not reasoned, rational and certainly not in larger public interest. Rudiments of service jurisprudence would require the state and the federal government to authorities to act with greater rectitude and in larger public interest, which has to be federal to any such decision making by the government."
"These extension orders do not satisfy the basic ingredients of the relevant provisions and instructions issued by the government itself for grant of such extensions. The mere fact that Pasricha and Jadhav contributed to the maintenance of law and order in the state and had a good service profile per se are not grounds which entitle them to the extensions," the judges said.
"Whatever be the grounds, the approval of the central government has to be supported by some proper reasons and essentially has to be in public interest. Reasons are the essence of any administrative or executive decision," they said.
