Petition in High Court challenging appointment of UP police chief

Lucknow: The Allahabad High Court Thursday reserved its order on maintainability on a writ petition challenging the appointment of Javeed Ahmed as Director General of Police by the Uttar Pradesh government.

The Lucknow bench comprising justices Narain Shukla and Ashok Pal Singh fixed January 11 for pronouncing the order.

The writ petition filed by social activist Nutan Thakur alleged that Ahmad was appointed superseding 13 IPS officers from the UP cadre. Eight of the officers were available for consideration for the post, the petition said.

Advocate General (AG) Vijay Bahadur Singh, along with Additional Advocate General Bulbul Godiyal and chief standing counsel Mansoor Ahmad represented the UP government in the court.

AG Singh, while referring to rulings, contended that the petition, in the nature of 'Quo Warranto', was not maintainable and it "should be dismissed as it was nothing but abuse of the process of the court."

Petitioner's counsel Ashok Pandey alleged that deviation from the law set a bad precedent. He also referred to rulings in support of his submission as the writ of 'Quo Warranto' was very well maintainable in the matter.

The petitioner sought a direction for removal of Ahmad from this post, claiming he was not legally empowered to hold this position.

The court, after hearing the petition on the point of its maintainability, reserved order for January 11.

Yesterday, the High Court directed that the writ petition be put up before a bench related to service matter cases.