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Journalism of Courage
The government cannot deny promotion to an officer on the ground that he had been placed under suspension and as cases were pending against him, the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) has ruled in a case.
This comes at a time when the Bombay High Court, hearing appeals on the matter of DGP AN Roy’s appointment, is looking into the government’s stand of not considering S S Virk for the top post as he was once placed under suspension.
The MAT case pertains to the Lohar brothers, accused in MPSC scam. Sunil Bharadwaj, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Protection of Civil Rights), Manoj Lohar, Additional Deputy Commissioner (State Intelligence Unit) and Nitin Pawar Lohar, Vice Prinicipal, Police Training School, had approached MAT after the Home Department denied them promotion even though the Departmental Promotional Committee found them fit to be promoted, subject to the outcome of the pending criminal cases.
The Lohars were terminated from service after the MPSC decided to cancel their nomination following allegation regarding caste certificate and manipulation of records in connivance with MPSC employees.
The high court had in 2007 quashed the MPSC order following which they were reinstated in September 2007. The MPSC and the government then challenged the HC decision in the Supreme Court, which is still to grant a stay.
Lawyers M D Lonkar and Samir Vaidya, appearing for the brothers, cited an apex court judgement before the tribunal which observed that “promotion can be denied only where a chargesheet or a criminal case has been filed.”
The tribunal observed since no chargesheet has been filed and the Anti-Corruption Bureau has found no evidence, the government’s stand is not tenable. “In the face of these facts, it is difficult to sustain the government decision to deny promotion only because of cases pending before SC or the criminal case under investigation by the ACB,” the tribunal held.
