Khushi Gupta
Published on: May 20, 2022 at 18:08 IST
The Central Government has opposed the Review Petition filed before the Delhi High Court by former West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay challenging the decision of the chairperson of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to transfer Bandyopadhyay’s Case from Kolkata Bench of CAT to Delhi Bench.
“It is humbly submitted that from the conduct of the Petitioner, it is palpably clear and apparent that it is indulging in Bench hopping in the garb of a review petition and the present review petition which has been filed immediately after the retirement of the Hon’ble Chief Justice who has authored the judgment under review,” the Government has said in its response.
Bandyopadhyay’s Plea was dismissed by a Bench of then Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh on March 7, 2022.
A review was then filed by him in which one of the grounds was the denial of passover despite repeated requests from the Junior Counsel appearing for Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi.
As the Centre opposed the Review, Justice Shakdher had remarked that if it was the stand of the Government that it is fair for the Court to not allow passover of Matters, then the Bench will record the same in its Order and no passover will be granted on request of Junior Counsel appearing for the Centre also.
“It is submitted that right of being heard is a valid and valuable right. Right of being heard only by Senior Advocate is neither a vested right nor treated to be a right, violation of which, would entitle a litigant to seek review of the Order,” read the response.
“It is humbly submitted that the present Review Petition is not maintainable as no lawful grounds exist for review of the said Judgment and the present Petition is nothing but an appeal in disguise to get the matter re-heard on merits and the same is impermissible in law,” the response stated.