Petition challenging UP DGP's appointment dismissed by HC

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court today dismissed a writ petition questioning the appointment of Javeed Ahmad as Director General of Police, terming it as not maintainable.
"....We are of the opinion that on the basis of the facts as well as grounds pleaded in the writ petition, a writ of quo warranto is not maintainable," a division bench of justice Shree Narain Shukla and justice Ashok Pal Singh said.
"Insofar as the relief to quash the appointment of respondent no.1 (Javeed Ahmad) is concerned, that can be sought only by persons aggrieved and it has not been pleaded that the petitioner is an aggrieved person. In the result, the writ petition is dismissed as not maintainable", the bench said in its judgement on a writ petition of Nutan Thakur, a social activist, alleging that Ahmad was appointed superseding 13 IPS officers from the Uttar Pradesh cadre.

For the state government, Advocate General Vijay Bahadur Singh, along with Additional Advocate General Bulbul Godiyal and chief standing counsel Mansoor Ahmad appeared.
The AG, while referring to rulings, contended that the petition, being in the nature of 'quo warranto', was not maintainable and it should be dismissed with cost as it was nothing but abuse of process of the court.
Petitioner's counsel Ashok Pandey alleged that deviation from the law of the land set a bad precedent.

The petitioner had sought a direction for removal of Javeed Ahmad from the post, claiming he was not legally empowered to hold the position.

The court, after hearing the petition on the point of its maintainability, had reserved its order on January 7.
Nutan Thakur is the wife of UP's suspended IPS officer Amitabh Thakur who had accused ruling Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav of threatening him on phone, a charge denied by Yadav.