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Updated September 23rd, 2021 at 15:06 IST

Rakesh Asthana's appointment: Delhi HC slams petitioner for copy pasting

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sadre Alam seeks to quash the order granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service of Rakesh Asthana.

Reported by: Ananya Bhatnagar
Delhi Police Commissioner
Image: ANI | Image:self
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The Delhi High Court on Thursday reprimanded petitioner Sadre Alam, who challenged the appointment of Rakesh Asthana on the post of Delhi Police Commissioner, saying that he has "copied without understanding".

"Bring your own independent submissions...you can't copy 90-95% of someone else's petition," said a division bench of the high court presided by Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh.

The remarks towards Advocate B S Bagga, the counsel for petitioner Sadre Alam came in after he failed to answer the court's query regarding the meaning of the word "Super Time Scale".

The court was hearing a petition filed by Sadre Alam which sought direction to quash the order dated July 27 granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service to Asthana and appointing him to the post of Delhi Police Commissioner. 

An intervention application has also been filed alleging that Alam's petition is a clear cut-copy-paste of his petition filed before the Supreme Court.

Earlier this month, the Central government through its Standing counsel Amit Mahajan filed an affidavit before the high court opposing the plea challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner.

During the hearing of the plea disputing the appointment in the Delhi High Court, the government underlined that the national capital had been facing 'diverse and extremely challenging situations of public order/law' and therefore, there was a need to appoint an 'experienced person' as Rakesh Asthana as the head of the police force.

Opposing the plea challenging Rakesh Asthana's appointment, the Centre underlined, "A compelling need was felt by the Central Government to appoint a person as the head of the Police force of Delhi, who had diverse and vast experience of heading a large police force in a large State having diverse political as well as public order, as well as experience of working and supervising Central Investigating Agency(s) as well as para-military forces."

The PM Modi-led government stated that for the same, a search was conducted in the AGMUT cadre, which is the IPS cadre for GNCT. Pointing out that the cadre only comprises of the Union Territory and small north-eastern states, the Central government added that the requirements for the post were lacking the present pool, and "hence in the public interest, a decision was made by the Central Government to have an officer (Rakesh Asthana) who had experience in all the above fields to supervise Delhi Police force and to provide effective policing on the recent law and order situation which arose in the National Capital Territory of Delhi."

Before being appointed as the Delhi CP,  A 1984-batch IPS- Rakesh Asthana was also in the race to become the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). However, during a meeting for the same, Chief Justice NV Ramana- part of the three-member panel to pick the CBI chief, ruled out his appointment stating citing a Supreme Court decision that "officers with less than six months left in service should not be considered for police chief posts". 

Asthana's previous posting was as the DG of the BSF and the NCB. Before that, he had been a Special Director in the CBI, effectively the agency's no:2 official, before he and the then-director Alok Verma levelled allegations against each other following which, they were both removed.

Image: ANI

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Published September 23rd, 2021 at 15:06 IST

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