SC pulls up senior Rajasthan official for not wearing proper dress

Taking serious objection to the dress worn by a senior bureaucrat of Rajasthan government, the Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled him up and adjourned the case for the day while asking him to adhere to a “proper dress code”.

The top court directed the additional chief secretary of Urban Development and Housing Department of the state government to check up the rules of the dress code worn by bureaucrats.

“What dress are you wearing? There is a dress code for the bureaucrats. Have you gone through the rules? If you don’t know the rules and understand what dress an official should wear while appearing in court, then you don’t deserve to be an additional chief secretary,” a bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

“Do you allow a person wearing slippers, dhoti or casual dress in your office,” the bench asked additional chief secretary Manjit Singh of the Urban Development and Housing Department, who was wearing a formal shirt and trouser. The top court asked the additional solicitor general ANS Nadkarni, appearing for the state government along with advocate Aishwarya Bhati, to apprise the court about the rules governing the dress code on Thursday.

Additional chief secretary Manjit Singh apologised to the court, after which the bench said it would hear the matter on Thursday.

The bench was hearing an appeal against the verdict of Rajasthan High Court of May 13, 2015, quashing a government notification of September 18, 2009 withdrawing declaration of the village Napasar in Bikaner district as Nagar Palika (municipality).

The top court had passed couple of orders in February asking the state government to produce the notification and later withdrawing the status. PTI

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