Maharastra Police: Pune: पुणे पुलिस कमिश्नर मीरा बोरवानकर को मैट का नोटिस, 25 हजार रुपये का जुर्माना, हेड कांस्टेबल को ASI प्रमोट क्यों नहीं किया..

PUNE: The Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) on Tuesday ordered high-profile Pune police commissioner Meeran Borwankar to pay a Rs 25,000 fine within a week, and also initiated contempt proceedings against her for failure to implement the tribunal's directive to consider promoting a head constable to the post of assistant sub-inspector of police. This is the first time in the recent past that the MAT has taken a highranking IPS official to task. It has ordered Borwankar to deposit the Rs 25,000 fine from her own funds within a week. It has also issued a showcause notice to the commissioner for "contempt of court for wilfully disobeying their order, which was given on November 23, 2011". "We direct the Pune police commissioner to immediately comply with our order... (she) shall also deposit a sum of Rs 25,000 in this court towards compensatory costs," MAT chairman Dr S Radhakrishnan and vice-chairman A P Sinha observed in the two-page order. Last year, while disposing of an application filed by head constable Laxman Rathod on November 23, the MAT had asked the Pune police commissioner and the member secretary of the Caste Certificate Scrutiny Committee to consider promoting him to ASI and not deny him the promotion solely on the grounds of non-availability of the caste validity certificate. It is "astounding" that despite the judgment of the HC and the ad-interim relief of our tribunal-the Pune police commissioner and the member secretary were directed to consider Rathod's case for promotion-no steps were taken by the police commissioner to date, said the order. Rathod, who joined the Pune police as constable in 1981, has been knocking at the doors of justice after he was denied a promotion on several occasions. In August 2010, the Pune commissioner had submitted Rathod's application for a caste validity certificate to the committee, which failed to take cognisance of it. On September 2, 2011, he was informed by Borwankar-in a circular issued by the general administration department-that unless he produced the certificate, he could not be considered for a promotion. Rathod invoked the RTI Act to find out why he had been overlooked.