GUWAHATI, March 5 � In a crucial judgement, the Central Administrative Tribunal, (CAT), Guwahati today declared the appointment of Shankar Barua as the Director General of Assam Police as null and void. Shankar Barua was appointed Assam DGP on July 28 last year.
The CAT today also directed the State Government to constitute a fresh panel as per the requirement of Section 6(2) of the Assam Police Act, 2007 within a month considering all eligible officers fairly and justly.
�Till then Shankar Barua is allowed to remain in position,� the judgement stated.
Senior IPS officer and Director General (Home Guard) Sharda Prasad had challenged the appointment of Shankar Barua as Assam DGP on July 28 last year.
After the expiry of Srivastava�s term last year, the State Government had drawn up a panel of five officers, and the name of Sharda Prasad was at the top followed by Sankar Barua and three others including SP Ram, BP Rao and M Mohan Raj. All the other three have now retired from service.
The CAT in its judgement while maintaining that procedural fairness was not maintained while making the choice for appointment of Shankar Barua as the DGP by operating an extinct panel, also termed the appointment as a serious procedural infirmity.
�In the present scenario and in the light of latest developments in the field of administrative law, we find that there has been a shift from the older jurisprudential values of substantive rights to the present values of procedural regulatory,� the tribunal noted.
Senior counsel BC Das, with M Chanda and U Dutta represented the applicant (Sharda Prasad) with the respondents being the State of Assam through the Chief Secretary to the Government of Assam, the Principal Secretary to the Government of Assam, Home and Political department, the Director General of Assam Police, the Union of India, Shankar Barua, the Director General of Civil Defence and Commandant General of Home Guards and the State Security Commission.
It needs mention here that Sharda Prasad, a few days back, had moved the Gauhati High Court against the delay in the delivery of judgement by the CAT.
