HC stays CAT order quashing Punjab DGP’S appointment
CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Tuesday stayed the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that quashed Dinkar Gupta’s appointment as the Punjab Police chief.
The bench of justice Jaswant Singh and justice Sant Prakash, while fixing next date of hearing for February 26, asked the chief secretary to file an affidavit citing details of the criteria followed for fixing the number of eligible panel officers for consideration and whether there were any instructions on the same from department of personnel and training, Government of India. Further, the chief secretary has also been asked to give details about the information sent to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for assessment of the panel officers on the “range of experience”. The UPSC, too, has been asked to file an affidavit indicating consideration of relative assessment for the panel on this criterion.
On Friday, the CAT had quashed the February 2019 appointment of Gupta, observing that the procedure adopted by the empanelment committee and UPSC for preparing the panel violated the Supreme Court judgment in the Prakash Singh case.
While the Punjab government and Dinkar Gupta have appealed against the CAT judgment, senior IPS officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddharth Chattopadhyaya, who had challenged Gupta’s appointment in tribunal, have filed caveats. A 1987-batch IPS officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers for the post on February 7, 2019.
The government, in its plea, had told court that having no chief may jeopardise peace and security in the border state. The arguments on Tuesday continued for two hours with government roping in senior Supreme Court lawyer Nidesh Gupta in the case along with advocate general Atul Nanda.