Shock to Rakesh Asthana from Supreme Court, hearing on the appointment of Delhi CP will be held against the order of HC

The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed an NGO to file an appeal against the Delhi High Court order appointing senior IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner, four days before his retirement on July 31. The decision has been challenged. A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna said it will hear the writ petition filed by the NGO and the appeal to be filed by it on November 26.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, 'Centre for Public Interest Litigation' (CPIL), said that the court had on August 25 kept pending its petition against the appointment of Asthana and asked the Delhi High Court to file a similar petition. But decide as soon as possible. Now that the High Court has decided on the petition pending there, it will help this court to go ahead with the verdict. I request this court to decide our petition challenging the appointment of Asthana.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, raised the preliminary objection on technical grounds that it is a writ petition and if Bhushan is aggrieved by the High Court order, he will have to file an appeal with the permission of this court.

The bench said there are instances where, with the permission of the court, any party aggrieved by the order of the High Court can file an appeal. The Bench further said, "We will give you the liberty to file an appeal and take both the writ petition and the appeal together and decide on it as we have asked you to go through impeachment in the High Court only by our order dated August 25." Was.'

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Asthana, submitted that the court should not keep the writ petition pending if the petitioner NGO is being given liberty to file an appeal. The bench said it would look into that aspect on November 26.

On October 12, the Delhi High Court upheld the Centre's decision to appoint Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner, four days before his retirement on July 31, observing that there was "no irregularity, illegality or infirmity" in his selection. Was.

Dismissing a PIL challenging his selection, the court had said the justification and reasons given by the Center for appointing Asthana are laudable and called for not interfering in judicial review.