PIL filed in Supreme Court against suspension of Durga Shakti Nagpal

A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court against the suspension of Uttar Pradesh (UP) IAS officer, Durga Shakti Nagpal.

According to the petition (a copy of which is with Live Law) filed by Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, “Nagpal’s victimization is a new low in a long process of the subversion of bureaucracy. The India Civil Service, modelled on the Westminster model, was always meant to be insulated from politics. Unlike, the US where the entire bureaucracy changes when a Government changes, in India, the same bureaucrats are meant to serve whichever Government is in power. That requires them to give objective advice to politicians (which the latter is free to overrule) and to honestly execute the policy decisions of the Government in power. The only way they can perform these tasks is if they are protected from the sudden whims and opportunist fancies of politicians.”

Nagpal was suspended on July 27^th, 2013 by the Samajwadi Party-led UP government from her post for ordering the destruction of a wall that was to form part of a mosque.