Jitendra Gupta (IAS:2013:BH), who took on the transport mafia in Bihar, would continue his legal battle for inter-cadre transfer after the Supreme Court on Monday withdrew its February order, where the Centre had said that the needful for posting the petitioner under Haryana cadre will be done within three weeks.
A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah noted that an application has been filed by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) seeking the recall of its February 3 order, where it had disposed of Gupta’s plea taking on record the assurance of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the “needful for posting the petitioner in Haryana cadre will be done within three weeks from today”.
Mehta submitted that the statement was made without obtaining instructions from the concerned authority and sought permission to withdraw the statement and demanded the matter be re-heard. To which, the bench observed, “The order dated February 3 was passed on the first day when the special leave petition was taken up for fresh hearing on which date notice was issued.”
After a brief hearing on the matter, the bench said: “We are of the view that sufficient ground has been made out to withdraw the statement made by the applicant.”
The bench noted in its order: “We order accordingly and the order dated February 3 is withdrawn to the following extent that the needful for posting the petitioner in Haryana cadre will be done within three weeks from today. The statement is placed on record. In view of the above, the special leave petition is disposed of. Pending interlocutory application(s), if any, is/are disposed of.”
The top court has posted the plea by Gupta for further hearing on September 15 and has also asked the DoPT to file an affidavit within a week.
The February 3 apex court order was passed on an appeal by Gupta challenging the December 24, 2019 order by the Delhi High Court.
Gupta’s plea was rejected by the high court where he had sought initiation of contempt action against the authority concerned for alleged no-compliance with a division bench judgement passed in July last year in the matter, where the Centre was directed to issue an order transferring him to a cadre outside the Bihar cadre.
