Capt govt goes into a huddle after CAT order on DGP appointment

Chief minister Capt Amarinder told the media that matter has to be sorted out between the CAT, UPSC and the officer

CHANDIGARH: The Central Administrative Tribunal’s (CAT’S) decision to quash appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab director general of police (DGP) on Friday came as a big setback to Captain Amarinder Singh-led state government, which immediately went into a huddle to explore the legal options to challenge the order.

The chief minister was attending the special session of Vidhan Sabha when the news about the tribunal judgment reached him, and he immediately went to his chamber.

As the contents of the order were not clear till it was uploaded on CAT website at around 2pm, the chief minister took no time to declare it before the media that Dinkar Gupta — who is considered his trusted lieutenant — would continue to be the DGP.

Amarinder, it is learnt, rang up advocate general Atul Nanda, urging him to study the tribunal’s order and keep papers ready to challenge it in Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday.

Later, Capt Amarinder spoke with mediapersons outside the Vidhan Sabha and said the matter has to be sorted out between the CAT, UPSC and the officer. “Dinkar Gupta will continue to be the DGP of Punjab,” he said.

Meanwhile, the issue also figured during the debate on Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) inside the assembly with Shiromani Akali Dal member Bikram Singh Majithia taking a jibe at the government on the issue.

“You are talking about the discrimination against Muslims in the CAA. But I have learnt just now that CAT has accepted the plea of DGP Mohd Mustafa who was not given his due and had challenged the appointment in the court,” said Majithia.

To this, transport minister Razia Sultana, who is Mustafa’s wife, stood up and reprimanded Majithia to rake up the issue inside the assembly.

“Appointment of DGP is an internal matter of our government and we will sort it out on our own. You don’t have any right to discuss this issue at this forum,” said Sultana. To this, Majithia responded by saying that he just wanted to show sympathy with Mustafa and is ready to withdraw his words “if behanji (Razia) doesn’t like that”.

A 1987-batch IPS officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers to be named the state police chief on February 7, 2019.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.