The Supreme Court on Monday declined to grant any relief to senior Gujarat IPS officer Kuldip Sharma, who demanded that all matters relating to his conduct as a civil servant — including his annual confidential ratings — be placed before either the Governor or any other constitutional authority because Chief Minister Narendra Modi was biased against him.
A Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and Ibrahim Kalifulla dismissed his writ petition as withdrawn, allowing him to move the appropriate forum.
In his petition, Mr. Sharma also urged the court to create a grievance redress mechanism for members of the all-India services who had fallen foul of the government because of the lawful duties they did. Mr. Sharma, one of the many Gujarat-cadre IPS officers who are pitted against the Modi government, is now on deputation at the Union government.
Mr. Sharma, a 1976-batch officer, highlighted instances to support his case and said Mr. Modi was acting against him with mala fide intentions. Mr. Modi is cited as one of the respondents, along with the Union of India and the State government.
His counsel said Mr. Sharma had filed many cases in the Central Administrative Tribunal, and whenever he got a favourable order, another charge was foisted on him. Since these cases did not go down well with the government, it downgraded his annual confidential ratings for four years (2002-07) from “Outstanding” to “Very Good.”
Justice Thakur told counsel: “This is a service matter, you should approach the High Court or the CAT, you can’t file a writ petition here for … relief.”
When counsel alleged that Mr. Modi was acting mala fide against him, Justice Thakur said: “ Mala fide has to be proved with evidence by filing affidavits. You can’t say this on the basis of your apprehension. You [had] better withdraw this and go before the appropriate forum.”
