Govt defends Sondhi's sacking from ICSSR

new delhi: the government defended its stand on the sacking of indian council for social science research chairman m l sondhi in the high court. it said that even if there was no rule under which the sondhi was sacked, it could always create a new one to validate the dismissal. sondhi's petition challenging the dismissal had come up for hearing before justice vikramjit sen on friday.sondhi was removed from his post on july 18. the deposed icssr chairman contended that there was no rule in the memorandum of constitution of the council under which he was removed. arguing on behalf of sondhi, former union law minister and senior advocate shanti bhushan contended the former icssr chairman was ``unceremoniously removed as he was opposed to hindutva agenda'' which was being pushed by the ruling bjp-government into the seminars and research activity undertaken by the council. declining to stay the government's order, the judge asked the government to maintain status quo on the council and reply to sondhi's allegation by august 9. appearing on behalf of the government, additional solicitor general mukul rohtagi told the court that the icssr was not covered by any act or provision of constitution, but was a totally government-created and funded society under the societies registration act, 1860. the asg said the petitioner was unnecessarily harping on the fact that there was no rule under which his chairmanship, supposed to be lasting for a fixed term of three years, was withdrawn. ``so what we forgot to put that clause, that it (the chairmanship) can not be withdrawn. nothing stops us from putting it now,'' rohtagi argued. ``he cannot claim the post back, just because we forgot to put that clause. in this case i (the government) is the master, i can make new rules if they did not exist. especially when i am not governed (in this matter) by any statute,'' rohtagi argued. when it comes to appointments, rohtagi said the status of icssr is not at par with, say, delhi university where the government has power to appoint a vice-chancellor, but cannot withdraw him, because his post is protected under the statutes of the delhi university act. ``if the government has the power to nominate, it has the power to withdraw also, because it is a non-statutory organisation and there is no supervening statute to restrain the government from doing so,'' the asg said. ``the council's bye-laws are made by us (the government), where is the fetter? it is our laws and we can change them,'' the asg said. in his petition filed before the court, sondhi has contended that when he ``strongly resisted the government's attempt to make icssr as an institution subservient to its political agenda'' and the government started looking for ways of replacing him with ``some other pliable chairman who is appreciative of its partisan agenda.'' under the rules a chairman can only be removed in case of death, resignation, becoming unsound in mind or insolvent, conviction in an offence involving moral turpitude or failure to attend three consecutive meetings of the council without proper leave. sondhi said the allegation levelled in government's letter of march 13 were not only false and baseless but also did not involve any charge of moral turpitude. ``the order of the government is bad in law as it was passed without jurisdiction as it had no powers to withdraw the nomination before a period of three years,'' sondhi claimed. sondhi said there was no provision to appoint a ``temporary chairman'' under the council rules. the sitting chairman could continue till new one takes charge.