New Delhi, Jan 12 ( The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the order of the Himachal Pradesh High Court asking the state government to shift Director General of Police Sanjay Kundu from his post.
During the hearing, a bench, headed by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud remarked: “Does the High Court have jurisdiction to transfer him (DGP Kundu) to some other post? It is a solitary post.”
The bench, also comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said that the order passed by the High Court suffers from “a patent error of jurisdiction” since such a directive could not have been passed without affording an opportunity of hearing to Kundu.
Further, it ordered the 1989-batch IPS official to recuse himself from probe to be carried out in the matter by an special investigation team (SIT) consisting of an IG-rank official.
The special leave petition, filed by Kundu through advocate Gagan Gupta, stated the high court “neither considered, nor even recorded the submissions and statements of the counsel of the Petitioner made in good faith and the interest of justice”.
It added that Kundu petitioned the Supreme Court to ensure that his career spanning 35 years is not reduced to a nullity on account of orders passed by the High Court, at a time where he has a little over 3 months of service left.
“The petitioner herein had interjected only with the intention to make sure that the dispute (between businessman Nishant Sharma and senior advocate K.D. Shreedhar) may be resolved through police-led mediation, so as to ensure that neither party engages in further criminality and to ensure that the dignity of either party is not ground to dust on account of inter se differences”, the plea said.
The High Court on Tuesday dismissed the plea filed by Kundu and Kangra Superintendent of Police Shalini Agnihotri seeking recall of its earlier order directing the Home Secretary to shift the two IPS officers to some other posts so they “do not have any opportunity to influence investigation in an alleged intimidation of a businessman”.
In an order on December 26, a bench of Chief Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao and Justice Jyotsna Rewal Dua had directed the state government to shift the state police chief and the Kangra SP in the wake of a complaint by the Palampur-based businessman who had apprehended threat to life.
Complainant Nishant Sharma had alleged threat to him, his family and property from his partners and cited an incident of “brutal attack” on him in Gurugram on August 25, saying two influential people of Himachal, including a former IPS officer, were identified in the CCTV footage.
