CAT ORDER: PUNJAB GOVT, DINKAR GUPTA MOVE HC
QUASHING OF DGP’S APPOINTMENT Govt says police force without chief will jeopardise border state’s security; IPS officers Mustafa, Chattopadhyaya file caveats
CHANDIGARH : Punjab government on Monday moved the high court against the decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that set aside the appointment of director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta. Acting on submissions of the state and DGP’s counsels, a division bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu allowed the listing of the case for hearing on Tuesday.
CHANDIGARH: The police force having no chief will jeopardise the peace and security in the border state, the Punjab government has argued in the high court, seeking a stay on the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT)’s order quashing the appointment of director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta.
It will have serious repercussions on the law and order situation, the government reasoned.
Dinkar Gupta has also appealed against the order. Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddharth Chattopadhyaya, who had challenged Gupta’s appointment in CAT, have filed caveats.
The petition challenging the CAT order will be taken up by the division bench of Justices Jaswant Singh and Sant Prakash on Tuesday.
As court commenced it’s work, additional advocate general Rameeza Hakeem submitted a request for an urgent listing of appeal against the CAT order before the bench of Justices
Rajiv Sharma and HS Sidhu. It was allowed.
The CAT on Friday had quashed the February 2019 appointment of Gupta as police force chief, observing that the procedure adopted by the empanelment committee and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for preparing the panel violated the Supreme Court judgment in the Prakash Singh case. A 1987-batch IPS officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers for the post of the police chief on February 7, 2019.
The CAT has given four weeks to the UPSC and the empanelment committee to make fresh recommendations of three officers for consideration of DGP’s appointment.
The government has argued that CAT judgment found fault with the guidelines followed by the empanelment committee, despite the same having been approved by the apex court.
It further said CAT ‘erroneously’ gave undue importance to the criterion of seniority, whereas the apex court has made it clear that it has to be taken note of along with other criteria. “It is the prerogative of the empanelment committee to select the core policing areas. The policing challenges in Punjab are different from those in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh,” the government said in the plea, stressing that CAT was right in selecting five areas of policing out of 20.
Gupta too made similar arguments, saying the guidelines, which Central Administrative Tribunal stated that the UPSC should not have considered for appointment have been used in 21 Empanelment Committee meetings held for the purpose of the recommendations of the state’s police chiefs since November 2010.
PETITION CHALLENGING THE TRIBUNAL ORDER WILL BE TAKEN UP BY THE DIVISION BENCH OF THE HIGH COURT ON TUESDAY