A bench of justices P V Hardas and Shalini Phansalkar- Joshi, hearing the PIL filed by activist Ketan Tirodkar, allowed the Centre to file an additional affidavit by the second week of June.
The Centre earlier informed it had rejected a proposal sent by Maharashtra government to confer Ashok Chakra, India's top peacetime military honour, and gallantry awards on fire brigade personnel who risked their lives in fire-fighting operations during the three-day terror siege in November 2008.
However, the Centre did not consider the names of some of the officers involved in anti-terror operations for Ashok Chakra as well as other gallantry awards and did not give any reason for doing so. The petitioner today said the government had filed two affidavits earlier and it should not be allowed to file a third one.
However, the counsel for the Union government, Rajesh Desai, said he had received instructions from the Centre to seek time for filing an additional affidavit in the matter. The bench then asked the government to submit another affidavit by the second week of June.
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The high court had admitted the petition earlier, saying the matter pertained to policy decision of the Union government and hence, needed to be argued thoroughly.
Tirodkar had filed a rejoinder, saying that even some of the officers injured during 26/11 attacks who figured in the list of the state for gallantry awards were not considered by the Centre for the honour.
The petitioner said though Additional Commissioner of Police Vishwas Nangre Patil did not figure in the state's list, he was given a gallantry award by the Centre for his role in fighting terrorists during the attacks.