HC dismisses plea against extension to UP chief secretary

A bench of the Allahabad High Court here on Friday dismissed a petition challenging a three-month extension given to Chief Secretary Alok Ranjan by the Uttar Pradesh government.

Dismissing the petition, a bench of Justice Sudhir Agarwal and Justice Rakesh Agarwal observed, mainly on the ground of maintainability, that it is the government's prerogative to appoint anyone as the chief secretary and the petition cannot be heard in the absence of any affected party.

The petition was filed by social activist Nutan Thakur whose counsel Ashok Pande argued that many cases were registered by the Central bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Ranjan as managing director of NAFED, which is an apex organisation of marketing cooperatives for farm produce in India.

Some of those cases are still pending, which renders Ranjan's service extension improper, Pande said.

The bench also heard the state's Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh and the central government's Additional Solicitor General Surya Bhan Pandey.

--IANS

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