Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: August 5, 2022 at 19:27 IST
Bombay High Court remarked that, “even if appointments and removal of members of various statutory boards, commissions and committees are at political will, there must be some reason given.”
Heading the Bench Justice SV Gangapurwala said, “we have taken a view in the past that even if appointment and removal is on the pleasure of the government, there must be some reason specified. We will not go into whether reason is sufficient or not but there must be a reason.”
The Bombay High Court stated that there must be a reason presented for any appointments or removals from various statutory boards, commissions, and committees.
The Maharashtra Government was directed by Justices Gangapurwala and MS Kamnik to reply and provide an explanation for the removal of SC/ST Commission chairman and members appointed by the previous Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) Government.
After the change in government, the petitioners changed the state’s decision to halt hundreds of tribal development projects, welfare schemes, and remove the heads of statutory bodies.
Advocates Satish Talekar and Madhavi Ayyapan informed the court that the Deputy Secretary of the Tribal Development Department had started cancelling the appointments of 197 non-official members who had been appointed early to 29 tribal projects in accordance with instructions from CM Eknath Shinde on July 21, 2022.
Jagannath Abhiyankar, the petitioner and Chairman of the SC/ST petitioner-chairman, as well as other commission members were included in this. Kishore Gajbhiye, a petitioner and retired IAS official, exposing the rights of indigenous people. The Bench, however, stated that it would restrict itself to the petitioners’ cause.
Every appointment and dismissal is political. Justice Gangapurwala stated that they were appointed due to their affiliation before adding that there must be a valid reason.
The petitioners case that shortly after CM Eknath Shinde took office, the Maharashtra government was directed to halt work that had previously granted administrative approval by the previous MVA government, which was led by ex-CM Uddhav Thackeray. With the assistance of the BJP, CM Shinde had rebelled alongside 40 other Shiv Sena MLAs.