The Supreme Court on Friday maintained it was willing to help suspended IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal but refused to entertain a PIl seeking her reinstatement as it felt that she was capable to fight her own case.
Dismissing the PIl filed by advocate Ml Sharma, the bench of Justices Hl Dattu and MY Eqbal said that the officer was capable of pursuing her own cause and is free to approach the Court or any other authority against her suspension order. “The moment she approaches the court, we will hear her plea and we may pass an interim order,” the Bench said.
When Sharma pointed out that the officer was suspended while implementing an order of the apex court, the bench headed by Justice Dattu remarked, “She can surely question the July 27 suspension order in a court of law. This is a service matter and PIls are not meant for this purpose.” Also, it was open to her to tell the government that she would have been in contempt of the Supreme Court order for what she was punished for, it added.
The support for Durga even echoed in proceedings before other benches of the Supreme Court, not necessarily linked with her suspension. With the media drumming up support for the beleaguered public servant after the UP government suspended her for allegedly demolishing the wall of a mosque, a bench of the apex court pitied the media frenzy that made matters worse.
A Bench of Justices GS Singhvi and KS Radhakrishnan said, “For 10 days the media carried her photograph and news about her suspension. As a result, the Government became so stubborn.”
Nagpal’s suspension also echoed before a bench of Justices Hl Gokhale and J Chelameswar who issued notice to the UP government for registering a case under Section 66A of the Information and Technology Act against writer Kanwal Bharti. The author had reacted to Nagpal’s suspension by asking UP Government on why no officer was suspended for alleged demolition of an old madrasa in Rampur.