The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed Punjab Director General of Police Suresh Arora and his Haryana counterpart BS Sandhu to continue in office till January 31 next.
Both the DGPs were due to retire on September 30 but the governments of Punjab and Haryana had given three-month extension to their respective police chief till December 31.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi passed the interim order on applications filed by the two states seeking modification of the Supreme Court’s order making it states for states and union territories to take assistance of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in shortlisting names of senior IPS officers for selection of DGP. Punjab and Haryana have enacted their own laws for appointment of DGPs.
While giving one-month extension to the two DGPs, the top court posted the modification applications filed by the two states for hearing on January 8, 2019.
The top court had in 2006 issued a series of directions, including a fixed tenure of two years for police chiefs, setting up of a state security commission to insulate police force from political influence and separating law and order duty from investigation.
On July 3 this year, it further directed all states and Union Territories not to appoint any police officer as acting DGP and issued certain other directions on police reforms to check favouritism and nepotism in appointments after it was pointed out that many states were appointing acting DGPs and then making them permanent just before their superannuation to extend them the benefit of an additional two-year tenure.
According to the July order, the states were required to send a list of senior police officers to the UPSC at least three months prior to the retirement of the incumbent. The UPSC would prepare a panel and inform the state concern. The state government would immediately appoint one of the persons from that panel.
In September, the Jammu and Kashmir government had requested the Supreme Court to modify its July 3 order which effectively banned appointment of acting DGPs and made it mandatory for states to send a list of three senior-most IPS officers to the UPSC for clearance before appointing a DGP.
The Jammu and Kashmir government had on September 6 appointed Singh as acting police chief replacing SP Vaid who was made transport commissioner. The process of consultation with the UPSC was initiated within 12 hours of Vaid’s transfer, J&K government counsel had told the top court.
While refusing to interfere with the Jammu and Kashmir government’s decision to appoint Dilbagh Singh acting DGP, it had sought Attorney General KK Venugopal’s assistance to decide if norms prescribed by it for such appointments could be relaxed.
Later, Dilbag Singh – a 1987 batch IPS officer-was in October appointed as the full-time DGP of the Jammu and Kashmir after adhering to the norms prescribed by the Supreme Court.
Governments of Bihar and West Bengal too have filed similar applications seeking modification of the court’s July order.
