By IANS
New Delhi : Jharkhand Police chief J.B. Mahapatra Friday moved the Supreme Court against his abrupt transfer last week.
A bench of Justices B.N. Agarwal and Tarun Chatterjee admitted Mahapatra’s petition for hearing on Aug 20.
Mahapatra, who was transferred Aug 3 as the state’s Home Guards and Fire Services chief, said in his petition that his transfer was against the September 2006 direction of the apex court on police reforms stipulating a fixed two-year tenure for chiefs of police forces of various states and union territories.
Mahapatra, a 1972 batch police officer, also challenged the posting of his junior B.D. Ram, a 1973 batch officer, as the state police chief and alleged he (Ram) got the post because of his political links.
“It is pertinent here to mention that B.D. Ram is politically well connected and has got the posting owing to his political links,” said Mahapatra.
“On the other hand, I, during my tenure as DGP, never succumbed to the various political dictates of the state governments on the issue of posting and transfer of subordinate police officers to suit the political and partisan objectives of the ruling party,” Mahapatra said in his petition.
Mahapatra said he suspected that he was abruptly shunted out because of the Aug 29 by-election for the Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat.
Mahapatra pointed out that after the start of the election process, the state government could not transfer him without consulting the Election Commission.