By IANS,
Mumbai : In a major embarrassment for the state government, the Bombay High Court Thursday ordered the removal of Maharashtra Director General of Police (DGP) A.N. Roy and said a police chief must be appointed within four weeks.
A division bench consisting of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice A. S. Bobde also came down heavily on the government over Roy’s appointment. The judges observed that there should be “objectivity and transparency’ to the appointments in such important posts and ordered Roy’s removal.
The high court order came almost four months after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had nullified Roy’s appointment following a complaint that he had superseded three other officers for the post.
Roy’s appointment (on Feb 29, 2008) was challenged in September 2008 by his colleague S. Chakraborthy, the DGP-Home Guards & Civil Defence. The CAT ruling by Jog Singh and Sudhakar Mishra had directed the state government to appoint a new DGP within a month’s time.
The order was challenged by the state government in the Bombay High Court, which upheld the CAT order.