The Supreme Court on today issued a notice to Kerala Chief Secretary for not reinstating T.P. Senkumar as state Director General of Police (DGP).
Earlier on April 24th the Supreme Court has ordered Kerala government to reinstate Senkumar who was removed from the post of DGP in June last year.
Kerala government will now have to file a reply on Monday, 8th May, explaining why it should not be held guilty of contempt of court.
The apex court also imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 on the state for seeking clarification on it verdict of reappointing Senkumar as DGP.
On May 3, the Kerala government has filed a modification petition seeking clarification of the order of reinstating Senkumar as the state police chief.
Seeking further clarification on the court’s judgment, the CPM-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had contended that Senkumar was appointed as the Director General of Police (DGP) before his removal in June 2016 and therefore he cannot be reinstated as “Director General of Police & State Police Chief”.
In its application, the state government had argued that Senkumar was neither empanelled nor selected as the State Police Chief and he was holding the post as “DGP and Head of Police Force” when he was removed. The state government had said there was another person appointed as the State Police Chief.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, appearing for Senkumar, told the bench that the state government has “mocked” at the judgement passed by the apex court, which on April 24 directed reinstatement of the senior IPS officer as the state police chief.
The counsel representing Kerala told the bench that the process to reinstate was going on and the state government has also filed a review petition in the apex court.
“That is not an argument. We will see the review petition when it will come up for hearing before us,” the bench told Kerala’s counsel.
The state’s counsel requested the bench not to impose cost and said that he would withdraw the application.
“We are dismissing it with costs. We are permitting them to withdraw it (application) with a cost of Rs 25,000,” the bench said.
The bench said that it had not gone into the allegations of malafide raised by Senkumar earlier before it but the state was “somehow confirming” the same by filing such application.
Senkumar had on April 29 moved the apex court seeking contempt action against the state government and its chief secretary alleging “wilful, deliberate disobedience” of its order reinstating him.
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