Rakesh Asthana appointment: ‘Filing PILs has become a career,’ Centre tells Delhi High Court

The Centre on Monday told the Delhi High Court that filing public interest litigations has become a “career and industry” in itself, while defending the government’s decision to appoint Rakesh Asthana as the police commissioner of the national capital.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a public interest litigation filed by lawyer Sadre Alam, challenging Asthana’s appointment as Delhi Police chief just four days before he was set to retire as the director general of the Border Security Force on July 31.

“PIL is an industry,” said Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre. “It is a career by itself, which was not envisaged by the Constitution. Some citizens of this country have a desire to run the government.”

Mehta claimed that such citizens sought to “fulfil their desires” by filing public interest litigations and pointing out what they thought was wrong with certain appointments and policies. “It is for elected government to decide,” he added.

On the other hand, the petitioner pointed out that the Centre’s decision to appoint Asthana as the Delhi Police chief violated a Supreme Court order

“The judgment [Prakash Singh v. Union of India] is saying minimum residual tenure of six month [after superannuation] should be there,” Alam’s lawyer…

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