With the abrupt ouster of erstwhile Mumbai Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria, the Maharashtra government’s grip over administration appears to be slack. Part of good public administration is the art of effectively managing how the public perceives decisions taken by the government. But the state seems to have faltered on this count, with the sudden transfer raising eyebrows among citizens.

The government also overlooked vital principles of administrative laws and jurisprudence in rushing to move Maria out of office. Whatever reasons the state might have had to move Maria out of the police department by promoting him to DG of Home Guards, it certainly had no right to disregard the administrative rulebook. This decision appears in clear violation of Section 22 (C) of the Maharashtra Police Act, which mandates every transfer and promotion be scrutinized by a Police Establishment Board. The move doesn’t abide by Section 22 (M) either, which explicitly states when a transfer is out of turn, there should be a clear public interest involved, as well as grounds for administrative exigencies. As per the law, even the government is duty-bound to give clear reasoning for an out-of-turn transfer.