Bombay HC adjourns Param Bir’s plea against inquiry to June 9 – Times of India

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Tuesday expressed its prima facie opinion that a petition filed by ex Mumbai police chief Param Bir Singh to challenge the inquiries ordered against him “can be adjudicated by Central Administrative Tribunal’’.
The HC said it found “no urgency’’ in his petition and adjourned it to June 9 on a request by his lawyer Sunny Punamiya who said both his senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi and Aabad Ponda were not present to argue.
Singh had filed a petition to challenge two orders passed by the state on April 1 and 20 for preliminary enquiry by Director general of police (DGP) Sanjay Pandey under service rules and an inquiry into allegations made by a police inspector against him.
The state had brought in special counsel and former advocate general Darius Khambata to oppose Singh’s petition.
Khambata raised a preliminary objection of the maintainability of the petition. He also said it was “infructuous’’ as the DGP, Pandey, had recused himself from both inquiries. Besides, he said there was “no real urgency’,’ adding, these are complaints “of a service nature and his remedy lies before the CAT.”
The inquiry ordered on April 1 was for suspected violation of service (conduct) rules, Singh had said.
The police officer Anup Dange whose complaint was to be inquired into, raised a grievance that he was not even made a party.
Senior counsel Navroz Seervai appearing for Pandey said he endorses Khambata’s submission about Singh’s petition being infructuous and not maintainable as he can approach CAT.
Singh had also sought a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into “aspects of criminal conspiracy and malicious attempts to thwart’’ its preliminary inquiry into his allegations of “corrupt malpractices’’ against former state home minister Anil Deshmukh, as directed by the HC on April 5.
Additional solicitor general Anil Singh, appearing for CBI did not really have to make any submissions. The HC said “in view of Khambata’s statement’’ there was no urgency in the matter and orally observed that it was adjourning the matter to beyond vacation only on Punamiya’s request.
The HC clarified that the pendency of the petition would not bar Singh from approaching CAT for any relief.
Singh, an IPS officer for 32 years, said that “the order of 01.04.2021 issued by the Maharashtra government directing Maharashtra DGP Sanjay Pande to initiate Preliminary Inquiry against the Petitioner by invoking Section 32 of Code of criminal procedure (CrPC) in alleged suspicion of violation of Service matter under All India Service (Conduct) Rules, 1968, is ex-facie, illegal…’’
Singh said he had met Pandey who he said had offered to “mediate’’ and requested him “to withdraw” his March 20 letter to the Chief Minister against Deshmukh. Singh said he had recorded the whatsapp calls made to Pandey later and submitted its transcript to the CBI on April 19 to challenge the inquiries ordered against him.
Days after his petition, Pandey recused himself from the inquiries. The preliminary inquiry order “is merely a retaliation in vendetta by Deshmukh”, said Singh’s petition