Bombay HC annuls Roy's appointment as DGP

In a huge discomfiture to the Maharashtra government, the Bombay High Court on Thursday annulled the appointment of senior IPS officer A N Roy as state’s Director General of Police for unduly superseding the three other senior most officers. The HC also asked the government to appoint a new DGP within a month.

A Division Bench headed by Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar upheld the Central Administrative Tribunal's (CAT) order and also issued stricture against the government after observing that the whole selection procedure was based on irrelevant considerations and not according to the law.

Coming down heavily on the government for setting aside the law in Roy’s appointment, the bench stated that there should be objectivity and transparency to the appointments in such important posts.

The high court order came almost four months after CAT had ordered to cancel Roy’s appointment for being promoted arbitrarily. The complaint to Roy’s arbitrary promotion on Feb 29, 2008 was made by his colleague S Chakrabarty, the DGP-Home Guards & Civil Defence to CAT, who in turn asserting the state was bound to consider the three officers who were senior to Roy for DGP's post directed the government to annul the earlier appointment and appoint a new DGP within a month.

S Chakrabarty is among the three senior-most officers who were superseded by Roy; other two are S S Virk and J D Virkar.

The state government challenged the CAT ruling in Bombay High Court, which upheld the order, however, stayed the judgment for a period of two weeks so that the aggrieved parties could move the Supreme Court.