The Supreme Court on Monday frowned upon the use of contempt of court jurisdiction and public interest litigation petitions to settle political battles.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and NV Anjaria said that political battles must be settled before the electorate.
Therefore, it refused to entertain a plea seeking contempt of court action against the Jharkhand government for appointing Anurag Gupta as the State's Director General of Police (DGP).
"In the Jharkhand case, we don't want contempt jurisdiction to be used to settle political scores. If you have a problem with a particular appointment, go to Central Administrative Tribunal. But settle your political scores in front of the electorate," the Court remarked.
The Court was hearing the Prakash Singh case concerning the appointment of DGPs in the States, when an application came up before it against Gupta's appointment.
After examining the plea, the Court noted that the contempt application was prompted by the dispute between Gupta and former DGP Ajaykumar Shri.
Shri was removed from the post for Gupta's appointment.
The Court stressed that when it is hearing the case related to the appointment of police chiefs in States, it is exercising the public interest litigation (PIL) jurisdiction, which cannot be used to settle political scores either.
"PIL is a mechanism to dilute the issue of locus to allow public spirited persons to approach this court. The jurisdiction cannot be permitted to settle the scores between competing interests," it said.
Amicus Curiae Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran supported the suggestions by Prakash Singh that the police chief should be appointed by the Chief Minister, Leader of Opposition and the Chief Justice of the High Court, instead of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).
Singh told the Court that States are appointing Additional Directors General of Police (ADGPs) to sidestep the Supreme Court guidelines on DGP appointments.
All these cases are coming up because monitoring by the Court has stopped, he said.
Ramachandran suggested that High Court special benches may assemble every three months to ensure that the top court's judgment is implemented.
CJI Gavai said that the matter will be heard in detail after the Constitution Bench case on Governors' powers.
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