HC stays Maya order sacking 23,000 cops

State Govt To File Special Appeal Against Order

In a setback to Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati, Allahabad high court on Monday admitted a bunch of writ petitions and quashed the state government’s order sacking 23,000 constables recruited by the previous Samajwadi Party government.

The court disagreed with the reason given by the Mayawati government for their dismissal that higher marks were awarded in interview to candidates who had secured less marks in physical test and vice-versa, suggesting it was a predetermined exercise.

The court also quashed the orders, passed by various recruitment boards, terminating the appointment of the constables.

The government’s chief standing counsel M C Chaturvedi said a special appeal would be filed against the single-judge order. ‘‘I am studying the judgment and will file the special appeal before a division bench of the Allahabad HC,’’ said Chaturvedi. Justice D P Singh said there was no need of testing the administrative or managerial skills of constables as the candidates were only required to clear ‘‘physical and fitness’’ tests.

Services of the constables were dismissed by three government orders on September 11, 18 and 30, 2007. The court observed: ‘‘The requirement of fairness demanded that the body, which has to inquire or decide on a issue which may affect individual rights, the character of such body should be above board.

Official bias is likely to arise when the person inquiring into a matter has a previous or personal knowledge of the material facts of the case before him by virtue of his dealing with those facts in some other capacity or context.

The possibility of predisposition or prior inclinations hovering over the mind of such a person into the matter, cannot always be ruled out.’’ In fact, the DGP at the time of constituting the Mishra committee appears to have been oblivious of the fact that Shailja Kant Mishra and Mohammad Javed Akhtar were part of the recruitment process.

This fact is apparent from the minutes of the meeting held under the chairmanship of the DGP on July 31, 2007, where it was provided that any officer who was part of the recruitment process in the last three years should not be allowed even to assist the Mishra committee in the inquiry, the judge added.

Thus, it can safely be deduced that the DGP without applying his mind constituted the four-member Mishra committee out of which at least two were part of the recruitment process and asking them to inquire into the process of which they had personal knowledge in their capacity as members of the recruitment process and therefore, it can be said that the composition of the Mishra committee itself was less than fair and vitiated, the judge maintained.
Source:-The Times of India Delhi 9 December 2008 P. 14
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