Appointment of DGPS: SC to hear pleas of states on Jan 15
NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will hear on January 15 the petitions of state governments seeking to implement their local laws regarding selection and appointment of director general of police (DGP).
The top court said it will hear the pleas of Bihar, Punjab and Haryana along with the petitions filed by West Bengal and Kerala.
“List the applications next Tuesday ie January 15, 2019, along with the applications filed by the states of West Bengal and Kerala,” said a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and SK Kaul.
The apex court had on December 12 last year extended till January 31 the tenures of present DGPS of Punjab and Haryana and agreed to hear the states’ pleas seeking to implement their local laws regarding selection and appointment of the police chief.
DGPS — Suresh Arora (Punjab) and BS Sandhu (Haryana) — were due to retire on December 31 last year and now they will remain in office till January 31 as per the earlier apex court order.
Several states, including Punjab, Haryana and Bihar are seeking modification of the apex court’s earlier order directing all states to mandatorily take the assistance of UPSC in short-listing names for appointing DGPS.
The top court on July 3 last year had passed a slew of directions on police reforms in the country and chronicled the steps for appointment of regular DGPS.
It had stated that the states will have to send a list of senior police officers to Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) at least three months prior to the retirement of the incumbent.
The commission will then prepare a panel and intimate to the states, which in turn will immediately appoint one of the persons from that list.
Besides, Punjab, Haryana and Bihar governments, two other state governments of Kerala and West Bengal have said that they have already framed a comprehensive law, dealing with the procedures to appoint the DGP, in pursuance of the 2006 apex court verdict on police reforms.
They have said that the apex court’s directives on appointment of DGPS needed to be modified with respect to the three states. The apex court, while deciding the PIL filed by two former DGPS Prakash Singh and NK Singh in 2006, had issued several directions, including setting up of a state security commission, to ensure that the government does not exercise unwarranted influence on the police.
It had said the appointment of DGPS and police officers should be merit-based and transparent and officers like DGPS and SPS should have a minimum fixed tenure of two years.
However, when states enacted laws providing mechanism for DGP selection, the apex court had on July 3 last year kept the state laws in abeyance. It had earlier passed a slew of directions on police reforms and had restrained all states and Union Territories from appointing any police officer as acting DGP.
The directions had come on an application filed by the Centre in which it claimed that certain states have been appointing acting DGPS and making them permanent just before the date of their superannuation to enable them get the benefit of an additional 2-year tenure till the age of 62 years. The top court had ordered keeping in abeyance any rule or legislation framed by any of the states or the Centre running counter to the earlier direction of the court.
THE APEX COURT HAD ON DECEMBER 12 EXTENDED TILL JANUARY 31 THE TENURES OF PRESENT POLICE CHIEFS OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA