A peeved Bombay high court on Friday said that the officers sitting in Mantralaya “consider nothing and the proceedings heard by them are over within 10-15 minutes”.
The HC also called the meeting between the secretary, home department (special) and the petitioner in relation to an externment order a “farce”. The order was then quashed and set aside by the court.
A division bench of Justice S.C. Dharmadhikari and Justice Gautam Patel was hearing the petition of Vinayak Manikar, who had an externment order passed against him by Miraj SDM Dattatray Kavitake on July 5 this year. The order externed him from Sangli and Kolhapur districts for a period of six months.
Manikar consequently filed an externment appeal before secretary home department (special) Vinit Agarwal on July 22. The home department fixed the date of appeal on September 21, after telling the petitioner and his advocate that an earlier date wasn’t possible, as police officials during that period would be on bandobast due to Eid and Ganpati festivals.
Peitioner’s advocate N.N. Gawankar told this newspaper that after the department refused an early date for hearing their appeal, they filed a writ petition in the HC that sought preponment of the appeal’s hearing date. The court, in its order dated August 6, recorded the statement of the prosecutor that the appeal would be heard on August 27. The petitioner and his advocate met Mr Agarwal on August 27, but were informed by his office that the next date had been scheduled for September 21.
“State cannot interfere with powers...we will not tolerate this defiance. These actions only lead to delay in people’s liberty, freedom...file clearance is not enough. The home department controls the police force. By doing this, what order will you (secretary) instill in society?” said Justice Dharmadhikari.