Nagpur, India- The Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court has found that the Amravati Municipal Commissioner (AMC) has not been appointed according to the rules since 2016. The court has now ordered the Chief Secretary of the State to explain this in writing within two weeks.

Justices Nitin Sambre and Abhay Mantri made this decision after hearing a petition from Sunil Kharate, the Shiv Sena (UBT) District Chief. The rules say that the AMC should be an IAS officer, but the State Government appointed Devidas Pawar, who is not an IAS officer.

Sunil Kharate had complained to the State Government about Pawar’s appointment, asking for it to be canceled. The government initially replaced Pawar with Kapadnis, but Pawar got a court order to stay in his position. Because of this, Kharate went to the High Court.

The judges reviewed the documents and noted that an IAS officer should have been appointed in 2016. They asked the Chief Secretary to file a written explanation under his signature. The next hearing will be on July 4.

In a previous hearing, the court asked for an affidavit from the Chief Secretary, but the Deputy Secretary filed it instead. The court refused this and insisted on one signed by the Chief Secretary himself. Advocate Saboo represented Sunil Kharate in court.