New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that the power to create or abolish a post rests with the Government and courts should refrain from interfering unless its "decision suffers from malafide."

"Creation and abolition of posts is a matter of Government policy and every sovereign Government has this power in the interest and necessity of internal administration," the apex court observed, quashing a Punjab Haryana High Court direction for reinstatement of an official whose services were terminated. Whether a particular post is necessary or not, is a matter that depends upon the exigencies of the situation and administrative necessity and it is not for courts to decide, a bench of Justices Tarun Chatterjee and P Sathasivam, said.

"The court would be the least competent in the face of scanty material to decide whether the Government acted honestly in creating a post or refusing to create a post or its decision suffers from malafide, legal or factual," the bench said. The Haryana Government had filed an appeal against an High Court order which directed reinstatement of Navneet Verma, whose services as Accounts Executive with the Haryana Bureau of Public Enterprises (HBPE) were terminated by the Government on December 31,1994.

It was claimed by the Government that there was no malafide in terminating Verma's services as the post itself as abolished as an administrative decision.

Source : PTI