The Supreme Court on Thursday lashed out at the Centre for harassing the common man by pursuing legal cases against labourers and class-IV employees for years.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday lashed out at the Centre for harassing the aam aadmi by pursuing legal cases against labourers and class-IV employees for years. It dared the government to take on IAS and IPS officers, instead.
The government doesn’t seem to have the “guts” to take on senior bureaucrats, a bench of justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar said after rejecting an appeal challenging a Punjab and Haryana high court order to appoint labourer Jarnail Singh in the defence ministry.
“You keep on filing petitions against class-IV employees but don’t move against IAS or IPS officers. That’s because you don’t have the guts,” an angry bench observed.
Government lawyer Wasim Ahmed Quadri said Singh was selected after an interview, but could not be appointed to the post for want of sanction, as it was “time-barred”.
Quadri said Singh was considered for the post on March 10, 1990, by the defence ministry, though the last date for appointment as per rules was May 25, 1989. The final appointment was subject to the condition that it would get the requisite sanction from the government. But the sanction could not be accorded as it was time-barred, he submitted.
Singh challenged the decision before the Central Administrative Tribunal, which ruled in favour of the Centre, but the Punjab and Haryana high court directed the government to appoint Singh to the post. The high court noted that Singh was entitled for appointment as the selection process was conducted through the employment exchange.
Aggrieved, the Centre appealed in the apex court, which upheld the high court decision.
The direction for appointment has been made on the facts of the present case but not as a general ruling, SC said.
This isn’t the first time that the court has ridiculed the government for its discriminatory approach towards employees. In March, a bench of justices Markandey Katju and AK Patnaik got irked at the government reluctance in allowing an increment to a railway employee who had retired 21 years ago in 1989.
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