Maharashtra: HC quashes CM Shinde’s decision over recruitment in co-op bank; slams him for interference

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

The 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 Mr. 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 Mr. 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.

The CM was not the head of the “Cooperation Department”, but the said department was assigned to a separate Minister, the Bench said.