Delhi HC dismisses pleas challenging appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi police commissioner

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions challenging the appointment of Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner and extension of his service by a year.

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed the petitions challenging the appointment of Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner and extension of his service by a year. The bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh dismissed the petitions. Last week, the same bench had reserved its verdict after completing its hearing of the matter.

The petitioner Sadre Alam through the plea sought direction for quashing of the July 27 order issued by the Union home ministry appointing Asthana as the Delhi Police commissioner, and the order granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service to him. Meanwhile, the NGO Centre of Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) through Advocate Prashant Bhushan had also filed an intervention application in the matter and challenged the same appointment.

The court had earlier issued notice to the Centre and Rakesh Asthana sought their responses in the matter. In reply, Delhi Police commissioner Rakesh Asthana has told the Delhi High Court that petitions challenging his appointment are not bonafide public interest litigations but are a flagrant abuse of the august forum of the Court for some hidden personal vendetta to derail his career.

Asthana, in his affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court, said two organisations namely Common Cause and Centre for Public Interest Litigations are professional public interest litigants and exist only for filing litigations as the only way of public service. Asthana apprised the Court that individuals running these two organisations in the recent past for some oblique and ostensible undisclosed reason have started a barrage of selective actions against him out of some vendetta.

He further added that as a part of this selective campaign against him, proceedings are being consistently filed against him by these two organisations, while outside court the people having control of the said organisation spearhead a malicious campaign against him. The Central government in its reply has earlier justified the appointment of Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner and said that he was given charge because he had the exposure of complexities of governance and knowledge of nuances of broad canvas policing.

Centre urged the Delhi High Court to dismiss the petition as well as the Interlocutory Application challenging Rakesh Asthana's appointment as Delhi Police commissioner with exemplary costs. The Court was hearing a petition filed by Sadre Alam seeking direction for quashing the order issued by the central government appointing Rakesh Asthana, IPS as the Commissioner of Police, Delhi and for quashing the order dated July 27, 2021, of the ACC granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service. Advocate Prashant Bhushan had also filed an intervention application in the matter. (ANI)

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