Modify order to consult UPSC for DGP selection: Bengal to SC
New Delhi: Asserting its “autonomy” and “ultimate power” of superintendence over police officials, the West Bengal government has approached the Supreme Court for dispensing with the need to consult the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for appointing the state’s new director general of police (DGP).
The Mamata Banerjee-government has requested the top court to modify its 2018 order in the Prakash Singh case on police reforms which made it mandatory for the state governments to appoint the DGP from a panel of three most senior police officers.
“The Constitution of India does not vest UPSC with the power to assess the respective merit of the officers holding the rank of DGP in the state cadre for determining the fitness to be appointed as the DGP/Head of Police Force (HOPF) of the State, since it is the state government which can have the proximate opportunity to assess the fitness of officers of that rank who had rendered service to the state in the state cadre,” said the plea.
The application was mentioned before Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana by senior lawyer Sidharth Luthra on behalf of the state government on Wednesday.
Luthra pointed out that the 2018 SC order restrains state governments from appointing acting DGP while the incumbent police chief has retired a day ago. The senior counsel made it clear that the state wanted empanelment by UPSC for the post to be done away with, and therefore,
the application was required to be heard urgently. The CJI said he will look into the request for hearing the matter sometime next week. The developments come amid a stalemate over appointment of a new DGP in West Bengal, which named Manoj Malviya, the most senior officer in the Indian Police Service cadre in the state, as interim DGP on Tuesday.
The West Bengal government’s application emphasised that UPSC had a limited role to provide consultation on the principles to be followed in the appointments to the service of the Union and promotions and transfers of such candidates, but UPSC could not be entrusted with the function of preparing the panel of officers for the appointment of DGP till Parliament makes a new law.
Pointing out that police and public order are subjects exclusively within the jurisdiction of the state, the application contended
that UPSC had neither the jurisdiction nor the expertise to consider and appoint the DGP.
“Each state has, therefore, exclusive power to legislate in regard to its police system and also have full administrative control over the police in the state...the direct involvement of the UPSC in the appointment process of the DGP of a state would tantamount to curtailment of the legislative powers of a state,” stated the plea.
The West Bengal government highlighted that even the SC should not curtail the legislative powers of a state under the principles of judicial review or in exercise of the court’s extraordinary authority under Article 142 (power to issue orders for doing complete justice). Under the 2018 order, states need to send names of DGP candidates to UPSC, which picks three candidates from the eligible names based on seniority, experience, service record and other criteria.