The Supreme Court on Friday slapped ₹25,000 costs on the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Kerala government for seeking modification of the court’s judgment reinstating T.P. Senkumar as Kerala police chief.
In its clarification, the State took the plea that Mr. Senkumar was never appointed the ‘State Police Chief’ and was only designated as the ‘Head of Police Force’.
“This is in extremely bad taste. You never made these arguments before in this court and now you have come with this?” a Bench led by Justice Madan B. Lokur asked Kerala counsel.
When the government attempted to withdraw the application to save itself from costs, the Bench said it would still have to pay the costs even after withdrawing.
‘Mala fide intentions’
Making matters worse for the State, the court observed that it was now left with no doubt whatsoever that the removal of Mr. Senkumar was done with “mala fide intentions”.
The State had submitted that the ‘State Police Chief’ was a distinct and separate post under Section 18 of the Kerala Police Act of 2011. Mr. Senkumar was appointed on May 22, 2015 as ‘Director General of Police and Head of Police Force’.
The Bench, however, issued notice on a separate contempt of court petition filed by Mr. Senkumar, through his counsel Haris Beeran, against the State’s Chief Secretary, Nalini Netto, for not issuing the official orders re-appointing him to the helm of the police force. Mr. Senkumar termed Ms. Netto’s alleged reluctance to issue orders to reinstate him “wilful and deliberate disobedience” of the SC.
He said Ms. Netto was the “primary component,” which led to his ouster on June 1, 2016. Ms. Netto had “created” the reasons for his removal, and now wanted to circumvent or at least delay his reinstatement, he alleged.
The SC, in a detailed judgment on April 24, 2017, had found the Kerala government’s decision to remove him on the ground of poor performance as DGP — especially in the aftermath of the Puttingal temple fire tragedy and the Jisha murder case — to be arbitrary, unsubstantiated and unfair. The judgment served a blow to the Vijayan government.
