INSPECTOR GENERAL OF POLICE Vs. K V XAVIER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals raise the question of the sustainability of the action of the Inspector General of Police in having directed by his order dated 19-3-1964 that the Special Armed Police a Unit of the Police Department .would be treated as a separate and independent unit, separate from, and independent of, another unit, the State Police Radio (S. P. R. G) Unit. The Government, by the orders challenged in the writ petitions giving rise to these appeals reversed the decision of the Inspector General and held that the two Units cannot be regarded as separate and independent ones. Our learned brother Eradi J. in O. P. No. 1287 of 1972 against which Writ Appeal No. 273 of 1974 has been filed, held that the Inspector General had power and authority to direct that the two Units be treated as separate and that the Government was wrong in reversing the said decision and coming to a contrary conclusion. In that view, he quashed Ext. P13 order of the Government treating the promotions in the S. A. P. Unit as provisional, and also Ext. P14 in so far as it directed that the S. A. P. Signal Branch should be deemed as part of the State Police, Radio Unit. Writ Appeal No. 273 of 1974 is against the said decision. Our learned brother Poti J. in O. P. No. 5311 of 1971 followed the judgment of Eradi J. and held that the Special Armed Police, Signal Unit was entitled to be considered as a separate Unit, till the impugned order of the Government on 7-8-1971 and that the petitioners in the writ petition who were working until that date in the said Unit, will have their seniority determined on the basis that the Unit was a separate one and was unified with the State Police, Radio Unit, only on and from that date. Writ Appeal No. 370 of 1974 is against the said judgment of the learned Judge.

(2.) It would be convenient to refer to the exhibits with reference to Writ Appeal No. 273 of 1974. By Ext. P4 order dated 6-3-1963, the Commandant of the S. A. P. made certain suggestions to the Inspector General. He was referring to the transfer of one Naik, three Lance Naiks and five police constables to the S. A. P. from the Radio Unit. The letter stated:

(3.) It would be noticed that Exts. P13 and P14 orders have not been passed, in vacuo, but in pursuance of the direction in Ext. P12 judgment of this Court. That being so, on the decision of the Government on such reconsideration, any readjustments of rights by way of promotions or transfer would only be inevitable, and we cannot appreciate the grievance that such decision retrospectively affected promotions and transfers already made. A decision in regard to the administrative set up of the two units in the Police Establishment was one which the Government had been directed to take by the judgment of this Court; and save on strong grounds we see little scope for interference with such a policy decision of the Government. We think that interference by the learned Judges in these cases was wrong.