The Governor, TV Rajeshwar, has taken the Allahabad High Court head-on over an otherwise inconsequential matter.
LUCKNOW: An unprecedented episode in the oft-heard executive-versus-judiciary saga is in the making in Uttar Pradesh.
The Governor, TV Rajeshwar, has taken the Allahabad High Court head-on over an otherwise inconsequential matter.
The Governor is now preparing to take the case before the President of India. That would create a history of sorts for the Indian judicial system, besides triggering a constitutional crisis of sorts.
It all started at the end of last month with the transfer of the Governor’s legal advisor Pradip Dube. A second rung judicial services officer, Dube, who has been posted in the Raj Bhawan for over 12 years, was transferred as Additional District Judge, Lucknow, by the Allahabad High Court.
The Raj Bhawan refused to relieve him, saying that the Governor should have been consulted before the transfer.
As the Governor stuck to his guns, the High Court suspended Dube on June 7 and even ordered an inquiry into the charges of corruption and irregularities against him. Dube was later posted to Ballia under suspension. But he continues to serve the Raj Bhawan.
This sparked off an unprecedented war of words between the Governor and the High Court. The Governor’s secretariat has shot off a harshly-worded letter to the Registrar General of the High Court making it clear that Dube shall not be relieved unless the court appoints a legal advisor in his place in consultation with the Governor.
The High Court has been equally severe in its retort. On Friday last, a full five-judge bench of the court passed an order in the case, saying that the Governor’s orders relating to this case shall be treated as “otiose, ineffective and inoperative”.
The court has gone on to say that the language used by the Governor’s secretariat in its letter to the High Court was “unfortunate, obstinate, intemperate, untamed, unbridled, arrogant and almost contemptuous”
“The showdown is indeed unfortunate,” says High Court Registrar General Swatantra Singh. The legal fraternity, too, is unanimous in its view that Dube, being a judicial services officer, is primarily answerable to his appointing authority which is the High Court.
“There is no confusion. He is an officer of the High Court and under the High Court Rules, he has to obey the directives of the court,” says Justice SHA Raza, retired senior judge of the Allahabad High Court, summing up the collective opinion.
Raza, now Lok Ayukt, Uttaranchal, says approaching the President of India is a recourse not open to the Governor, and if that happens, it would indeed be unprecedented.
As things stand now, if Dube does not join his new posting at Ballia, it would be construed as contempt of court for which he could even lose his job.
The state government is caught in a bind. A senior law department official told DNA that for the time being the government would just wait and watch.
“One thing is clear. We would definitely not cross swords with the court,” he added.
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