Mumbai: Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Friday assured the Bombay High Court that the 25 junior engineers (civil) cadre, will be promoted from April 1, 2019. This assurance comes after Mehta was pulled up by the HC and was asked to personally remain present in the court. A division bench of Justices Bhushan Gavai and Nijamoodin Jamadar had earlier this week, issued a show cause notice asking why contempt of court proceedings must not be initiated against Mehta.
The bench summoned Mehta after noting that the BMC did not stand its statement, which was made in 2016 for promotion of these 25 civil engineers. Having appeared personally, Mehta once again gave an assurance that the said engineers will be promoted from April 1, 2019.
During the course of hearing, Justice Gavai expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which the civic body treats the orders of the HC. “We do not like to summon higher officials like this, but we have seen in many matters pertaining to the BMC, orders passed by this court are not conveyed to the municipal commissioner,” Justice Gavai said.
Notably, Justice Gavai had summoned Mehta in 2018 regarding another matter and had even then informed him of the poor assistance provided to the court by BMC’s legal cell. The bench was seized with a plea of these engineers, who had first moved the HC in 2014 by filing a petition seeking promotion. They, however, withdrew their petition after the BMC assured the HC in 2016 that it will promote the engineers.
However, when the civic body failed to live up to its word, the engineers highlighted the fact before the bench led by Justice Gavai, who observed that the BMC had “coerced” these employees to withdraw their petitions in 2016 but now has forgotten its statement. With the assurance given by Mehta, Justice Gavai disposed of the show cause notice for contempt of court proceedings, issued against the civic chief.
