Nagpur bench of Bombay HC quashes Maha CM Eknath Shinde’s decision over recruitment in co-op bank

Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has quashed the decision of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde to stay the recruitment process of a co-operative bank, noting that the CM has no powers to review or modify the calls taken by the minister concerned.

A division bench of Justices Vinay Joshi and Valmiki SA Menezes in its order of March 3 termed Shinde’s decision wholly unwarranted and without authority of law.

The order was passed on a petition filed by Chandrapur District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. and a businessman named Santoshsingh Rawat, who had been elected as its chairman, opposing Shinde’s decision.

According to the plea, the CM’s order was passed at the behest of local politicians. The court held that the chief minister has no independent power assigned under the “Rules of Business and Instructions to review or modify the decision taken by the in-charge minister.

The intervention of the Chief Minister is wholly unwarranted and without the authority of law. The Chief Minister has no independent power under the Business Rules and Instructions to interfere into the subject which was allocated to the Incharge-Minister, the court said in the order.

There is no authority/power vested in the Chief Minister as per Rules of Business and Instructions to have supervisory powers over the decision taken by the concerned Minister. Nor do the Rules indicate that the Minister is subordinate to the Chief Minister as regards independent functioning of a department assigned to him by the Rules, it added.

No doubt the order of granting permission for recruitment is of administrative nature which can be reviewed, but only by the In-charge-Minister. The intervention of the Chief Minister is not authorized under the Business Rules and the Instructions issued thereunder, it said.