Observing that an individual with legal background can’t be allowed to proceed on the State Police Complaints Authority (SPCA), the Bombay excessive court docket on Monday dismissed a petition filed by Rajkumar Dhakane, who has been faraway from Maharashtra SPCA for having three legal circumstances registered in opposition to him.
“In a submit equivalent to this, it’s cheap to anticipate — even demand — the very best requirements of integrity and lawfulness,” stated the division bench of justice Gautam Patel and justice Madhav Jamdar whereas dismissing Dhakane’s petition.
Dhakane was appointed as “an eminent member of civil society” on the Authority on July 14, 2020. In August 2020, the house division referred to as for a report from the Director-Basic of Police (DGP) after newspaper studies highlighted that there have been legal circumstances registered in opposition to Dhakane, a Pune resident.
Finally, he was faraway from the Authority on 5 July 2021, after the DGP submitted a report that disclosed that three legal circumstances have been registered in opposition to him in Pune metropolis and in one of many circumstances registered by Koregaon Park police station, he was booked for tried homicide.
Dhakane moved the excessive court docket on July 8, contending that he had disclosed the offences registered in opposition to him when he utilized for the appointment, pursuant to an commercial issued by the state authorities and the federal government glad itself about his suitability for the appointment. Apart from, he argued that the submit relies on tenure– for a set interval of three years.
The argument, nonetheless, did not impress upon the excessive court docket. “The very nature of the submit makes it troublesome for us to just accept this argument,” stated the bench. “The members of the authority are required to look into complaints about excesses by law enforcement officials above a sure rank. It appears to us wholly incongruous that member entrusted to look into alleged police excesses himself has quite a few complaints in opposition to him,” it added.
“We don’t see how an individual can declare to be entitled to proceed in a submit equivalent to this and concurrently say that the state authorities should wholly ignore all legal complaints which have been beforehand made in opposition to him,” stated the bench. “That is nothing however saying that the complaints in opposition to the petitioner ought to successfully be ignored and that he ought to nonetheless be thought of “an individual of eminence”,” it noticed.
The HC additionally rejected Dhakane’s argument that there was no provision enabling the state authorities to take away a member earlier than the top of the tenure. On this regard, the court docket accepted the state authorities’s stand that the ability to nominate consists of the ability to droop or dismiss for a legitimate purpose.
Headed by a retired excessive court docket decide, the authority includes a retired police officer of the rank of inspector-general or above, a authorities officer retired as secretary or commissioner, an individual of eminence from the civil society and serving police officer of the rank of director-general of police. It’s entrusted to look into complaints in opposition to deputy superintendents of police or above.
