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Adv. Prashant Bhushan appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation in an intervention application today in a plea challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Commissioner of Police Delhi, alleged that the whole petition is a copy paste of his petition filed in the Supreme Court.

“This petition is a copy paste of our petition. Every comma, full stop everything is copy pasted. Your lordship may adjourn the matter and see how this is an abuse of process of law,” said Bhushan

Bhushan further said the neither the petitioner nor the Centre had pointed to the court about his petition in the Supreme Court.

ASG Chetan Sharma appearing for Centre however denied knowledge of Bhushan’s petition in the Supreme Court.

Adv. BS Bagga appearing for the petitioner Sadre Alam said that Bhusan was merely levelling allegations against the petitioner while the petition was drafted by him. Bagga said he however had no objection to Bhushan’s intervention application.

On ASG Chetan Sharma’s remark “This is competitive litigation”, Bhushan said that he was squarely raising allegations against the Centre since the SGI Tushar Mehta appeared before the Supreme Court and was aware about the petition.

The court will hear the matter tomorrow.

The Supreme Court had recently directed the High Court to to decide the plea challenging the appointment of IPS officer Rakesh Asthana, as Commissioner of Police, Delhi.

The petition filed by one Sadre Alam seeks quashing of the order/communication dated Jul 27 of the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service to Asthana.

The petition filed through Adv. BS Bagga says that the impugned orders are in clear and blatant breach of the directions passed by the Supreme Court of India in Prakash Singh case, as Asthana did not have a minimum residual tenure of six months at the time of his appointment as Commissioner of Police since he was to retire within 4 days. 

Further, no Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) panel was formed for the appointment of the Delhi Police Commissioner and the criteria of having a minimum tenure of two years has been ignored.

The petitioner has submitted that “the post of Commissioner of Police in Delhi is akin to the post of DGP of a State and he is the Head of Police Force for the NCT of Delhi and therefore, the directions concerning the appointment to the post of DGP passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Prakash Singh case (supra) had to be followed by the Central Government while making the impugned appointment. However, the same have been given a complete go-by the Central Government”.

The petition thus seeks a direction to the Union Governmnet to initiate fresh steps for appointing the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, strictly in accordance with the directions issued by the  Supreme Court of India in the Prakash Singh case viz., (2006) 8 SCC 1,(2019) 4 SCC 13and (2019) 4 SCC 1 of an officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre.