Mumbai: The Maharashtra State Minorities Commission has no power to adjudicate upon any dispute and pass any executable order, much less with regard to employment in a municipal corporation, the Bombay High Court has said.
The court has quashed an order passed by the minorities commission directing the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to promote Safia Shaikh by giving a deemed date promotion with effect from her completing the Graduation, which was on June 14, 2014, alongwith all monetary benefits.
The HC was hearing a petition filed by the PMC challenging this order. Shaikh was working as a peon with the PMC since June 2004. She was promoted as junior clerk on August 28, 2019.
Shaikh’s husband was working as a peon with the Octroi Department of the PMC. He died on November 21, 1995. She then applied to the PMC for appointment on compassionate grounds, in place of her husband. At the time, she had studied up to Class 12.
After obtaining a succession certificate from the civil court in Pune, she again applied for the job with the PMC on compassionate grounds in August 2003.
On June 3, 2004, she was appointed to the post of peon on probation for three years. She became a graduate only on June 14, 2004, about 11 days after her appointment. She applied for the post of junior clerk with immediate effect which was rejected.
She then obtained an order from the minorities commission for her appointment as a junior clerk from the time of her graduation, which was challenged by the PMC before the HC.
PMC’s Advocate Rishikesh Pethe submitted that no powers were conferred upon the Commission’s Chairman under the Maharashtra State Minorities Commission Act, 2004 to adjudicate such a matter.
Shaikh’s Advocate Atiya Memon contended that the provision 10 of the Act empowered the chairman to pass the orders as has been done in the present case.
The court, however, noted that on plain reading of section 10, “it is clear that there is no power conferred on respondent no.2 (commission) to adjudicate upon any dispute or a lis and to pass any executable order, much less to make an adjudication on legality and validity of the terms of employment in Pune Municipal Corporation.”
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“In our view, respondent no.2 has purported to exercise powers while passing the impugned order, which were not vested in him,” a bench of Justices KR Shriram and Jitendra Jain said on August 8.
