The Demo Site

The Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered that observations made by the high court against IPS officer Meeran Borwankar in the Asha Bajaj case be expunged from records.

A division bench of Justice D K Jain and Justice H L Dattu observed that the high court should have refrained from making adverse comments on the conduct of Borwankar for `allegedly' misusing her official position.

The IPS officer had approached SC, challenging the HC order where she was pulled up for sending Bajaj to a mental asylum in Pune. The case dates back to 2007 when Borwankar ordered her officers to arrest Asha Bajaj and send her to a mental asylum in Pune. According to the police, Bajaj had been harassing Borwankar by sending SMSes saying that she liked her son.

The SC said that if the letters and the SMSes placed on record were true, it could have been a reason for anyone to feel harassed and embarrassed.

In its order, the HC bench of Justice Bilal Nazki and A A Kumbhakoni had remarked that Borwankar seemed to have had some "grudge'' against Bajaj. "The whole exercise was done to send Bajaj to a mental hospital with a preconceived plan in which the main role has been played by Borwankar and unfortunately by the magistrate,'' the HC had observed. "If Borwankar had any grievance, she could have taken recourse to the law and Bajaj could have been booked for offences she might have committed. But the course taken by Borwankar was absolutely wrong and was not expected of an officer of (her) cadre.''