HC seeks AAP's response to PIL against job offer to Rohith Vemula's brother

New Delhi, May 17 The Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the AAP government on a PIL against its "politically motivated" decision to offer a job on compassionate grounds to the brother of Dalit research scholar Rohith Vemula, who committed suicide in January.

The Delhi government told a division bench of Chief Justice G. Rohini and Justice Jayant Nath that Rohith Vemula's brother Raja Chaitanya Kumar Vemula informed it that he has refused the offer.

Raja, who was offered a the job of a lower division clerk (Grade-IV) in the Delhi Administrative Services through a letter dated April 4, "has turned down the offer, so we are going to take our decision back", said the counsel appearing for the Delhi government.

The court asked government to file an affidavit on the plea and posted the matter for July 13.

The petition, filed by advocate Avadh Kumar Kaushik, sought quashing of the government decision on the ground that it's "purely politically motivated" and "illegal, arbitrary, motivated, discriminatory, unjustifiable and unfair exercise of discretion without any mandate of law, statute, policy and guidelines".

The plea questioned the wisdom of the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in giving a clerical job to Raja, the brother of Hyderabad University research scholar Rohith Vemula.

Rohith's suicide on January 17 caused a prolonged political uproar and accusations against the BJP-led central government of nurturing systemic bias against Dalit communities.

The PIL said the student "died at Hyderabad University by committing suicide, having no connection with Delhi and admittedly, he was not a government servant in Delhi and thus, the impugned decision is nothing but purely politically motivated, biased and illegal and thus the same cannot be allowed to sustain".

The case is neither of a special category nor any kind of "martyrdom or sacrificing the life for any good cause but it is a simple case of suicide by the deceased at Hyderabad and thus there is no rationality or public welfare in the AAP government decision," said the plea.

The plea challenged the appointment process, saying that if allowed to proceed the decision of the Delhi cabinet will set a wrong precedent.

The petition said that the government's decision is a "clear violation of law of the land and public policy thereby infringing the fundamental rights of the public at large in general and Delhi's youth in particular who are trying to get the job on their own merits but are deprived by the Delhi government" because of the decision.