Incidentally, while staying the decision of Venugopal’s dismissal, Justice Anil Kumar had clearly held that the “petitioner (Venugopal) has been able to make out a prime facie case that termination of his post is vitiated under law. It becomes imperative for this Court to nullify the illegalities committed in removal of the petitioner and terminating his tenure post.”

The Centre’s contention today failed to cut much ice with Venugopal as his advocate, senior counsel Arun Jaitley, submitted that the government does not require the permission of the Court to decide on the dismissal order.

“It’s their decision,” he told the bench, “for which, the Court’s umbrella is not needed to decide if they want to withdraw it.”