The Delhi High Court rebuked the Bihar government Tuesday for 'humiliating, harassing and victimising' an IAS officer who took a tough stand against the transport mafia despite threats to his life.
The court directed the central government to initiate inter-cadre transfer of the 2013-batch IAS officer Jitendra Gupta forthwith and issue the order to shift him out of Bihar cadre, completing the process within four weeks.
It also ordered the state to pay Rs 5 lakh to the officer as compensation within four weeks along with other dues, saying the court cannot undo the harm done to him but the amount awarded would apply some balm to his wounds.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jyoti Singh said if the court failed to protect a man who had the nerve to stand up against the mafia and the state machinery, they would be doing great disservice to the system and setting a bad precedent, where no officer would gather courage take on the wrongdoers.
Gupta, who was represented through senior advocate Sachin Datta and lawyer Sourabh Ahuja, had sought transfer to Haryana alleging threat to his life for acting tough against the transport mafia there.
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) had earlier directed the Centre to consider the case of the officer for inter-state deputation to Haryana or for central government deputation.
It had directed the state government not to withhold its consent for the inter-state deputation or central deputation of the officer and communicate it to the Centre.
The state government challenged the CAT order before the high court. It claimed that the tribunal failed to understand the mala fide intention of the officer for seeking cadre transfer which was to avoid a criminal case.
The high court dismissed the state government's appeal against the CAT order.
In 2016, Gupta was arrested in a corruption case and was sent to jail. He was later granted bail and the FIR was quashed following Patna High Court's order.
In Tuesday's verdict, the bench said the resistance of the State government to let go of the officer on an inter-cadre transfer bewildered it.
While on one hand, according to them, he is one of the most corrupt and tainted officers, yet every effort has been made to stall his movement out of the State cadre, it noted.
"Having traversed ourselves through the chequered history of the events and happenings in the life of Respondent no. 1 (Gupta) for several months for which the State of Bihar is squarely responsible, we have no doubt in our mind that an IAS officer with courage and conviction, who in the discharge of his duty took on the transport mafia, has been compelled to undergo immense humiliation and harassment," it said.
Rather than rallying behind such an officer and providing protection to him, the "State of Bihar has not only victimised him, but has treated him as persona non-grata".
The court said the state government's actions have led to a situation where he and his family members have undergone a huge turmoil for several months and had to flee from Bihar for their safety.
"In our view, Gupta has been victimised without any rhyme and reason and his dignity and self-respect has been badly dented," it said.
The bench left it to the central government to take a decision on the cadre to which the officer should be transferred but added a caveat that Haryana was his home state and he had also given a preference to be transferred there and this may be considered while taking the decision.
Regarding the issue of threat to the life of the officer, the court noted that despite several requests for police protection, the State Government did not come to his aid.
It said it was unsafe for him to return to Bihar and refused to appreciate the stand of the state government that there was no threat perception to him as no untoward incident took place.
"The right to life and liberty is the most precious of all the fundamental rights because, if this right is not protected, all others will become meaningless. Can we shut our eyes to the situation on hand, and let the situation come to a stage, when an untoward incident actually occurs and, God forbid, harm is caused to the officer or to his family?
"In our view, if we do not act in such a case where the facts cry out for help, we would be failing in our constitutional duty. The tribunal in our view rightly observed that we cannot give rise to another case of Satendra Dubey," the bench said.
Satyendra Dubey was an Indian Engineering Service officer and was allegedly murdered in Gaya, Bihar after fighting corruption in the Golden Quadrilateral highway construction project.
In his plea before the CAT, Gupta had alleged that the mafia, in connivance with officers of the state vigilance department, had implicated him in a false case, alleging that he had seized four trucks on July 3, 2016 and demanded a bribe for releasing the vehicles.
After being released on bail, he had moved the Patna High Court against the FIR. The high court had quashed the FIR against Gupta on October 28, 2016.
The Supreme Court had also upheld the high court order and directed the Centre on May 9, 2017 to consider Gupta's inter-state transfer, after noting the threat perception.
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