Bengaluru, Feb 20 The Karnataka High Court on Thursday quashed the Central government's order debarring a retired judge from government appointments.
A bench, headed by Justice R. Devdas, passed the order.
Earlier, the court had passed an interim order staying the order issued by the Union government debarring retired high court judge, Justice Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai from government appointments for three years.
Justice Desai, in a petition, submitted that he had been unfairly debarred from government appointments.
The state government had appointed Justice Desai to the single-member Commission of Inquiry to look into the Mysuru Urban Development Authority (MUDA) scam, in which CM Siddaramaiah was named as accused number one. In between, Justice Desai was appointed as a judicial member of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
In his petition, the retired judge stated that he had sought postponement of his joining date for the CAT as he had already taken up the assignment entrusted by the Karnataka government. He said that instead of considering the request seeking more time, the centre, through its order dated November 7, 2024, barred him from taking up government appointments.
Justice Desai said that while passing the order, the Union government had neither issued him notice in this regard nor sought his consent while issuing the circular debarring him from the government appointments.
The order was issued by the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions and Justice Desai had questioned the legality of the order.
Social activist Snehamayi Krishna, who has filed complaints against the MUDA allotment of 14 sites to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s wife Parvathi B.M. in lieu of acquired land, had earlier demanded that Justice Desai should be removed from the post of Chairman of the committee probing the MUDA case and had written to the Chief Secretary with his demand.
In his letter, he argued that Justice Desai cannot be appointed to any independent, legislative, or regulatory committee for three years and said that his appointment as committee Chairman should be withdrawn immediately. He also demanded that all records with the retired judge should be handed over to the government and noted that he would write to the Central government about his appointment despite the order debarring him.
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