Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Jabalpur bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday imposed a fine of Rs 10,000 on the then Tikamgarh collector Subash Dwivedi for attaching Chief Municipal Officer (CMO) Geeta Manjhi to the collector office.
According to the High Court's order, the principal secretary (PS-UAD) did not answer the query of the court, under which provision of law, the collector was authorized to pass an order for the attachment of the CMO.
The HC bench said that instead of filing a direct reply and bringing provisions on record, PS (UAD) has tried to confuse the court by making unnecessary and superfluous averments in an affidavit.
The order further stated that the appointing authority of the CMO is the state government. Therefore, the transfer could have been affected by the state government. In the absence of any delegation of authority brought on record by PS (UAD) in favour of the then collector to attach CMO, the impugned order cannot be substantiated in the eyes of law. Therefore, PS (UAD) has failed to justify the order of the then collector having been passed under legal authority; the said order of the collector is cryptic and without authority and deserves to be set aside.
