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Court reserves order in Bhagwat case

The Delhi high court today reserved its order on the maintainability of a public interest petition challenging the "sacking" of Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat as the naval chief on December 30 and seeking his immediate reinstatement.

The division bench heard the arguments of petitioner-in-person Wing Cdr (Retd) H M Sethi and Attorney-General Soli Sorabjee for the central government before reserving its judgement in the matter.

Sorabjee had raised the question of maintainability of the petition and the locus standi of the petitioner in approaching the court with the public interest litigation though he was not affected in any manner by the government decision.

Wing Cdr Sethi argued that since the matter concerned one of the highest posts in the defence forces, the public at large had a right to know the facts and circumstances leading to the dismissal of the naval chief.

The court had summoned the records to decide whether or not to issue show cause notices on the petition. But since the question on the maintainability and the locus standi of the petitioner were raised, the bench thought it better to decide the matter prior to issuing show cause notices.

The government had been all along maintaining that the petitioner had no locus standi to approach the court with the PIL since he was not the affected party and because the issue was not of any public interest.

Meanwhile, a Bombay high court division bench today rejected a petition filed by a Marathi journalist Dilip Kalembekar seeking to know why former naval chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was sacked.

Admiral Bhagwat was sacked on December 30 by the government. The division bench, while rejecting the petition, observed that the petition was motivated and that since a similar petition was earlier rejected by the same court, a petitioner does not have any locus standi.

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