Dinkar Gupta’s appointment as Punjab Police chief quashed
CAT ORDER UPSC told to send new panel of 3 names for the post in 4 weeks; Capt says Dinkar will continue to be the DGP, govt to move high court: AG Nanda
CHANDIGARH: In a major jolt to Punjab government, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) here on Friday quashed the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as the state police chief.
A two-member bench of CAT chairman L Narsimha Reddy and M Jamshed directed the Union Public Service Commission and the empanelment committee to form a new panel of three senior-most officers for appointment to the post of director general of police and complete the exercise within four weeks.
A 1987-batch Indian Police Services (IPS) officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers to be named the state police chief on February 7, 2019. IPS officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddharth Chattopadhyaya had challenged Gupta’s appointment on the ground that they were “ignored” despite being senior to Gupta and having outstanding service record. While Mustafa is a 1985-batch officer and Chattopadhyaya
a 1986-batch officer. Besides them, the other officers superseded were Hardeep Dhillon, Jasminder Singh and Samant Goel.
Chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh said Gupta would continue to be the DGP. Punjab advocate general Atul
Nanda said the state was in the process of challenging the order and would try and request the high court to take it up on Monday.
Rajiv Atma Ram, senior advocate who represented Chattopadhyaya, said: “Gupta has to go immediately. He can continue as DGP, but not as the head of Punjab Police. The CAT has given no time to him and state.” Atma Ram said there is also no provision for appointing an acting DGP.
There cannot be a better instance of arbitrariness and favouritism than this. It is clear that the selection process has been virtually ignored TWO-MEMBER CAT BENCH
‘SELECTION PROCEDURE VIOLATED SC JUDGMENT’
On January 19, 2019, Punjab government had sent a list of 12 officers to the UPSC to prepare a panel of names to be considered for the appointment of DGP.
The UPSC constituted an empanelment committee, which on February 4, 2019, met and forwarded a panel of three names – Dinkar Gupta, MK Tiwari, VK Bhawra — to the state government. The bench, in its order, stated that the procedure adopted by the empanelment committee and UPSC for preparing the panel violated the Supreme Court judgment in Prakash Singh’s case. The SC judgment says selection shall be made on the basis of (a) length of service, (b) very good record and (c) range of experience for heading the police force.
The empanelment committee considered just five core policing areas —– intelligence, law and order, administration, investigation & security — while assessing the suitability of eligible officers for the inclusion in the panel. There are 20 other areas of policing, the bench observed. “It is clear that the selection process, which was galvanised, has been virtually ignored and defeated with impunity,” the tribunal further observed. The tribunal also questioned as to why panel of twelve officers was examined, when as per the top court judgment names of only three officers were to be recommended.
“The easiest way for a state government to ensure that an officer of its choice and who is pliable as DGP, would be to continuously post him in any specific activity, howsoever, inconsequential it may be, and then to make an effort to accord primacy to such activity in the process of selection,” it said,
“There cannot be a better instance of arbitrariness and favouritism than this. The selection process has been reduced to a mockery. Any aspiring officer would make endeavour in ensuring that he remains in the good books of the administration and he is posted continuously in a particular activity,” the bench said referring to weightage given to some policing areas over others by the panel. Intelligence is at number 16 on the list, but listed at number 5 by the committee.
“The matter has to be sorted out between CAT, UPSC and the officer. However, Dinkar will continue to be the DGP of Punjab,” the chief minister’s media adviser, Raveen Thukral, tweeted. Mustafa, on his part, said: “The CAT judgment has restored my honour and has vindicated my stand.”