The legal tangle over the appointment of Mr Shankar M. Bidari as DG&IGP took a new turn with the high court on Tuesday ordering status quo till March 30. The state government had challenged a recent Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order asking the state to quash Mr Bidari’s appointment and to make A.R. Infant an ad hoc DG&IGP. Advocate General Vijay Shankar, appearing before a division bench of Justices Dilip B. Bhosale and B.S. Indrakala, said the government did not commit any error and selected one of the panel names cleared by the Union of Public Service Commission (UPSC).
The court wanted to know why Mr Bidari has not challenged the order. “If he doesn’t challenge, it means he is not interested.” An advocate appearing for Mr Bidari clarified that the delay was due to non-availability of the order copy. “The petition is being filed and it may come up for hearing in a day,” he said.
“The tribunal should have been directed to place all the information before the UPSC. Why has it selected only Mr Infant for the ad hoc DG&IGP’s post?” asked Justice Bhosale. The AG replied that CAT has acted as an appointing authority, which is unconstitutional. The AG submitted that in the 2007 NHRC report, which looked into alleged offences committed by the special task force constituted to trace forest brigand Veerappan, did not mention anything against Mr Bidari, who was heading the STF.