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CAT slams CWG Organising Committee; imposes fine of Rs 20,000
The Central Administrative Tribunal has slammed Commonwealth Games Organising Committee for `wasting` its time by not disclosing about the appointment of security chief.
New Delhi: The Central Administrative
Tribunal has slammed Commonwealth Games Organising Committee
for "wasting" its time by not disclosing about the appointment
of security chief for the sporting event while a case on it
was going on and slapped a fine of Rs 20,000 on it.
"This is nothing but a vexatious and frivolous litigation
instituted by the impleading applicant (OC) by abusing the
process of law...It is necessary to prevent any person or
party from instituting or continuing vexatious proceedings
especially habitually and without reasonable ground," the
Bangalore Bench of the Tribunal said.
The observation came while hearing the matter of the
appointment of an Additional Director General (ADG) for Games
security, a post which was lying vacant for more than a year
owing to a legal tussle between the Union government and a
senior IPS officer R P Sharma.
The OC had in 2008 sent a proposal to the Ministry of
Home Affairs recommending the name of Sharma, a 1987 batch
Karnataka cadre officer, for the job on the basis of a report
made by a Search Committee.
Based on recommendations of both the OC and Karnataka
government, Sharma also attended different CWG
security-related meetings in Delhi when the proposal was
awaiting clearance by the MHA.
However, Sharma`s name was not cleared after "careful
consideration" of the matter by the Ministry of Youth Affairs
and Sports.
Aggrieved over the rejection, Sharma filed an appeal with
CAT Bangalore Bench in January 2009 seeking its direction to
the Centre to consider his application and to issue clearance
for his deputation.
Hearing the matter, the CAT had in April 2009 directed
the respondent (MHA) to act as per the instruction given in a
Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) circular stating
that Sharma is eligible to be considered by the committee
under the chairmanship of Cabinet Secretary for screening the
cases of deputation.
The court also asked the MHA to place Sharma`s case
before the committee and to submit their recommendations to
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (if the recommendations are
positive) and to complete all the required procedure before
May 30 this year.
However, Sharma again approached the CAT in June praying
that the government has disobeyed its order and the court
issued a show cause notice to Madhukar Gupta, the then Union
Home Secretary and asked him to appear before it for not
abiding with the court`s order.
Meanwhile, the Central government filed an appeal in the
Bangalore High Court against the CAT`s order for erroneously
summoning Gupta citing his retirement and argued that only a
serving officer can be summoned.
The CAT then issued notice to Home Secretary G K Pillai
and sought his reply over the matter.
On August 2, the counsels for Central Government
submitted that they would need help of Mohan Parasaran,
Additional Solicitor General of India, for the contempt
proceedings.
Surprisingly, after over a year of legal battle, the OC
in its one of submissions recently said that "there is no
further requirement of ADG Security as the Organising
Committee has decided to avail the services of an officer from
the Indian Police Service of the rank of Additional Director
General of Police in view of the security reasons and various
threats of breach."
Unhappy over it, the CAT said "We have no hesitation to
say that this proceeding is nothing but vexatious litigation
by the concerned party which has resulted in the wastage of
time of the court too besides of the Registry as well as of
the other learned Members of the Bar who were waiting for
their cases.
"...Hence to prevent and discourage such kind of
proceedings as in the instant... we consider, as a warning, to
award costs," it said and directed the impleading applicant
(OC) to pay Rs 20,000 to Sharma.
The court has decided to hear the case related to
contempt proceedings on August 27.
PTI
PTI