Supreme Court To Consider Urgent Listing Of Plea For Contempt Against PM, HM Over Rakesh Asthana's Appointment As Delhi Police Commissioner

A petition seeking to initiate contempt of court action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah over the decision to appoint Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner was mentioned before the Supreme Court today.

Advocate ML Sharma, who has filed the contempt petition, mentioned the matter before the Chief Justice of India for urgent listing on Monday, August 9.

"Let us see if it is numbered. Let the petition be numbered first. We will see", CJI Ramana said.

Sharma argued in his petition that the decision is in violation of a July 2018 judgment of the Supreme Court in the case Prakash Singh & Others v.Union of India which said that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) should, as far as possible, consider only those officers for such appointments who have two years of service left.

Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS Officer, was appointed as Delhi Police Commissioner on July 27, just four days before he was scheduled to retire from service. The Union Home Ministry, which oversees the Delhi Police, granted Mr Asthana one year's extension in service "in public interest".

He was earlier serving as the Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force (BSF).  It may be noted that Asthana was in the short-list for the appointment as CBI director. However, CJI NV Ramana, who is also part of the High Powered Committee which picks up the CBI Chief, objected to Asthana's appointment citing the Supreme Court judgment which stated that a police officer with less than six months of service should be not considered for the post.