The State government on Thursday gave an undertaking before the High Court of Karnataka that it would ignore all recommendations made by MLAs, MLCs and MPs on transfer and retention of police officers while exercising the powers of transfer under the Karnataka Police Act.
An affidavit by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajneesh Goel was filed before a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S. Kinagi during the hearing of a PIL petition filed by V. Shashidhar, an activist from Bengaluru.
“It is assured to court that the State government shall follow the dictum of this court and the mandate of the apex court in the case of Prakash Singh and others,” Mr. Goel stated in the affidavit.
A similar affidavit was filed in February by Director-General and Inspector General of Police Praveen Sood, in his capacity as chairperson of the Police Establishment Board, stating that the board, which is entrusted with the task of transferring police officers, would ignore recommendations from MLAs, MLCs and MPs.
The affidavits, treated as undertakings by the government and the board by the court, were filled after the court, during an earlier hearing, passed orders pointing out that the transfer of police officers was governed by the Karnataka Police Act, which was amended as per the directions of the apex court in the case of Prakash Singh to set up the Police Establishment Board and the Police Complaints Authority.
As the issue of transfer of police officers is governed by the police Act, both the second respondent and the State government cannot get influenced by such recommendations made by members of the Legislative Assembly, the court had observed in its earlier orders.
It was pointed in the petition that several MLAs had written to the Chief Minister and others making recommendations for transferring and retaining individual officers.
Examination order
On the plea of the petitioner for initiation of criminal action under the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of People Act, 1951, against the MLAs and MLCs for this alleged violation of the oath of office, the Bench directed the government to examine this aspect and take action, if necessary. It subsequently disposed of the petition.
