The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday declined to stay transfer orders of two assistant commissioners of police (ACP) on the grounds that the Karnataka Police (Amendment) Act, 2012, prescribes a minimum tenure of one year for officers.
A Division Bench, comprising N. Kumar and H.S. Kempanna, was hearing two writ petitions filed by V. Shekar, who was ACP, Vijayanagar Subdivision, and G.B. Manjunath, ACP, Jayanagar Subdivision, in Bangalore, challenging the August 17 transfer order issued by the Additional Director-General of Police (Administration).
In all, 94 officials of deputy superintendent of police rank and 324 police inspectors were transferred by the government on August 17 by two separate orders. Aggrieved, Mr. Shekar and Mr. Manjunath approached the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT), which had declined to stay the order. Subsequently, the officers moved the High Court seeking a stay on their transfer.
The petitioners submitted that the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh vs. Union of India case had fixed a minimum tenure of two years for police officers on field duty in 2006.
The court had also asked State governments to incorporate the term of office in their respective police Acts.
They said they had served just over one year in their places of posting. The petitioners’ counsel also informed the court that the State government had amended the Karnataka Police Act fixing minimum tenure of one year for officers on field duty. He argued that through the legislation, the government had attempted to circumvent the Supreme Court guidelines on police transfers.
Mr. Justice Kumar said the Supreme Court had fixed the two-year tenure when there was no law governing the term of office. It had asked State governments to legislate on the matter, and the Karnataka government had followed it.
He also said that every piece of legislation was deemed constitutionally valid until it was proven otherwise before a court of law. Hence, the option available to the petitioners was to challenge the validity of the amended Act. The amendment Bill got the Governor’s assent on August 8 and was gazetted on August 9 with retrospective effect from June 2.
Declines to give order
Justice Ram Mohan Reddy on Wednesday declined to direct the Department of Technical Education to admit several students, who had not cleared more than eight subjects in the previous semesters, to fifth semester in various polytechnics across the State.
The department informed the court that the last date for admission even with payment of the Rs. 1,000 penalty was August 18. Moreover, classes for the 16-week semester commenced from July 9 and one of the three internal assessment tests was also over. If admitted, the students would not be able to fulfil attendance guidelines too, the department said.
Sandeep Gowda and others had filed writ petitions seeking directions to the authorities to admit them to the fifth semester. They had challenged the carryover guidelines issued by the department which restricted the admission to fifth semester to those who had eight or less subjects pending from the previous semesters.
