The Bombay High Court today slammed a senior government official for "misrepresenting" its orders in a letter to the police chief to ask if the police protection should be continued for ministers who have not paid for it.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G S Kulkarni rapped the state's joint home secretary after perusing the letter written by him to the state's director general of police seeking his opinion on continuing the police protection to the ministers.
After seeing the letter, the bench wondered if the officer was "up to some mischief."
The official faced the court's wrath during the hearing of a lawyer's petition seeking direction to the police to recover dues from the VIPs including politicians who have been provided security cover but have not paid till date.
The court had on the previous hearings rapped the state government for failing to initiate steps to recover the dues.
The court had then said the government should withdraw police protection given to private persons like political leaders and other celebrities if they do not pay the dues.
After perusing the letter written by the joint secretary to the state DGP said, the bench said, "We never raised the issue of police protection given to cabinet ministers and others who hold posts in the government. We were only talking about private persons. But this joint secretary in his letter has misrepresented our orders and has asked DGP's opinion on whether protection granted to ministers should be continued."
"Either this officer (joint officer) has done this because of lack of knowledge or he is up to some mischief. In both the cases, he needs to be pulled up. Does the home secretary know what his juniors are up to? The chief minister should also be informed about all this," the court said.
After seeing the letter misrepresenting its order, the court directed home secretary to appear in the chief justice's chamber to discuss the issue and adjourned the matter.
During the hearing, government counsel Abhinandan Vagyani told the court that the government has decided to take fresh suggestions from the DGP, the commissioners of police and the Revenue Department on the issue and take a fresh policy decision.
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