HC to UPSC: Submit chart of process to consider candidates

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to produce a chart detailing about process on candidates considered by it for the appointment of director general of police (DGP) in the last five years across India.

The direction came during resumed hearing of a batch of petitions in which Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta has challenged Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order quashing his appointment. The HC bench of justice Jaswant Singh and justice Sant Parkash was hearing an application from another DGPrank officer, Mohammad Mustafa, who had sought early hearing of the matter.

The HC has asked UPSC to produce the chart regarding the consideration made by it for the post of the DGP of different states in the last five years depicting as to how many officers were eligible as per 2009 guidelines for each of such consideration and how many such officers were called for/considered for empanelment in each such consideration.

It has also been asked to submit whether the zone of consideration was restricted/regulated as per the relevant department of personnel and training guidelines and what was the inter-se seniority of the empanelled officers among the officers eligible as per 2009 guidelines.

The information is to be submitted with supporting documents. The UPSC has also been told to compile the chart showing the comparative merit of all officers considered for the post of the Punjab DGP on adopted criteria.

The UPSC has also been asked to state about the number fixed for zone of consideration for the empanelment of eligible officers and if there is no number fixed for the zone of consideration as per 2009 guidelines then whether the DoPT guidelines and instructions were followed to regulate the zone of consideration.

Further it has asked to submit if the DoPT guidelines and instructions are not followed what is the process followed by UPSC for restricting/ regulating the zone of consideration; and if there is no restriction for the zone of consideration, then whether all officers eligible as per 2009 guidelines are required to be considered irrespective of their number.

The UPSC has been directed to state whether it asks for the forwarding of the list of all the officers eligible as per the guidelines or leaves it to the discretion of the state to forward and send the list of eligible officers. The UPSC has been told that the pan India practice regarding the number of officers in the zone of consideration for empanelment as DGP be shared.

On January 21, the HC had stayed the CAT order. Earlier, the CAT had quashed the February 2019 appointment of Gupta.