HC rejects BMC’s plea on Khairnar

Rajan Kochar, counsel for Khairnar, assured the court that his client would not resume duty for a period of three weeks. He argued that the BMC had not given 48 hours notice to Khairnar prior to filing its application seeking a stay on the High Court order.

A jubilant Khairnar told Express Newsline that he will now wait for Municipal Commissioner Girish Gokhale’s letter asking him to resume service. “I have already shown my willingness to resume duties, and now, especially after the rejection of the stay on my reinstatement by the High Court, it is for the commissioner to recall me,” he said. Khairnar added that he was determined to move a contempt petition against the BMC for refusing him to resume duties on Monday. “I am awaiting the copy of the order any day and I will definitely haul up the corporation for contempt of court,” he said.Gokhale, on the other hand, reiterated that the BMC will move the appeal before the division bench against the order of Khairnar’s reinstatement.

“We will do it once we get the copy of the order after studying its implications,” he said. On July 4, the High Court had ordered Khairnar’s reinstatement by setting aside a resolution of the civic general body dismissing him from service, on the ground that it was perverse and not tenable in law.