Era of judicial activism or of adventurism is over, it\'s now Judicial Terrorism? - CC\'s rejoinder

What a rejoinder !!! I enjoyed reading this one .. This comes out not as a knee jerk reaction, no imprompto response but well thought out and submitted with the force and convinction of a senior officer who has reasons to believe that the action of the Department was justified and reasoned... May be, not all netizens may subscribe to the ' tyson like punches'... but the attitude and convinction behind it is worth it.. Rarely do you see Senior Officers stand up tall, stand by the team, take resposibility of the action directed by them and ready to live by every word of it... emphasis again on the " I do take full responsibility ...."...

Cleary there are lot of questions posed in the rejoinder.. Facts will speak for itself and I do not venture into commenting on the same.... I just hope the Board would sit up to take notice of the same... Bottom line - If facts merit standing by your team please do that and as vociferosly as in the present case... May be this is first of the kind,,, I have been a keen surfer of this site since inception and couple or more times have voiced my concern as to why Department do not go all out to stand by their actions -- why do they leave the impression that the 'spine' is lacking ... I have had the pleasure of working with talented departmental officers who clearly know their job... having said that it is important to stand up and own up for ones action with the convinction that triggered such an action... may be let me reproduce this again "Imposing a cost of Rs. 1 lakhs on a Government servant who was engaged in discharge of statutory duty ought not have been played like a toy / pistol. It came out to be lethal. When the department is collecting a revenue of Rs. 2 lacs 50 thousands Crores in a year, Rs. 1 lac is a petty amount. Exemplary cost imposed on Asstt. Commissioner ought to have been at least Rs. 10 crores. The revenue collected by Asstt. Commissioner goes to consolidated fund of India, it will be drawn out of that, where is question of black & white ? Why from his pocket. There was no misconduct, no malafide, nothing beyond jurisdiction, nothing unethical, not in defiance of any specific order, direction by name. Why a cost be imposed on him or on department?"

Pertinent thoughts.. strong words.. those of us who have fought some 'battles' will acknowledge that this one comes straight from the heart.....And if netizens really believe in the essence and spirit of this rejoinder - Stand up guys...

Suresh Nair.

Suresh Nair 15/05/2010

 

While I agree that departmental officers should stand up and be counted, they cannot cross the Lakshman Rekha and damn the Higher Judiciary as is done by this Chief Commissioner.

As for the issue involved in this case, the department has erred on two counts - first as the High Court itself pointed out in its judgment, what stopped the department from appealing against the first stay order of the Tribunal passed in the year 2005 or the extension of stay granted in the year 2008. Secondly what stopped the Chief Commissioner/Commissioner from filing an appeal to the Supreme Court against the current High Court order.

If the Chief Commissioner felt that he had such a strong case in favor of the department, he should have gone to the Board in person and convinced the powers that be that it was a fit case to file an appeal in the higher forum.

Instead, he chose to issue a public rejoinder to a news report in TIOL which analyzed the order of the High Court, using derogatory language belittling the powers of the High Court exercising its Writ Jurisdiction and casting aspersions on the integrity of the Judges.

Can we still call him Captain Courageous or is it plain stupidity on public display? I heard that this very officer almost lost his promotion for raving and ranting against a Tribunal judgment in one of the de novo orders passed by him during his tenure as a Commissioner. Now with this public rejoinder defaming the Higher Judiciary, he can forget his pension and may even end up behind bars for his contemptuous outbursts against the Allahabad High Court.

santosh hatwar 15/05/2010