India News | SC Seeks Response of Bihar, UPSC on PIL Challenging Appointment of DGP

New Delhi, Mar 7 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Bihar government and the UPSC on a PIL challenging the appointment of S K Singhal as the Director-General of Police (DGP) contending that it violated the apex court judgement.

The apex court also issued notice to Singhal, a 1988 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer, who was appointed as the state DGP in December 2020.

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“We will issue notice,” a bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli said.

The bench, however, refused to tag the PIL filed by Bihar-based Narendra Kumar Dhiraj challenging the appointment of Singhal as the DGP with another pending case against the present police chief of Jharkhand, Neeraj Sinha.

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“No we will not tag it with the other case,” the CJI said.

At the outset, senior advocates Jay Salva, appearing for Dhiraj said that the state government has violated the apex court's judgement in Prakash Singh's case while appointing Singhal as the DGP.

The senior advocate said that two similar petitions, challenging the police chiefs of two states including the appointment of Jharkhand DGP, have been pending.

Moreover, a contempt notice has been issued against the Jharkhand government, the UPSC, and others in one of the cases.

Singhal, who was given the additional power of the DGP after the voluntary retirement of his predecessor Gupteshwar Pandey, was later appointed to the post without following due procedure.

Recently, the apex court had agreed to consider listing for urgent hearing the pending contempt petition against the Jharkhand government and DGP Neeraj Sinha that alleges he has been occupying the post even after superannuation on January 31.

The apex court on September 3 last year, had pulled up the Jharkhand government and the UPSC for their roles in the appointment of an interim DGP in alleged violation of the top court's judgment that had fixed two-year tenure for a state police chief who has to be selected from a list of senior police officers to be prepared by the UPSC.

The 2006 apex court verdict in the Prakash Singh case had said that the DGP of a state shall be "selected by the state government from amongst the three senior-most officers of the department who have been empanelled for promotion to that rank by the UPSC on the basis of their length of service, very good record and range of experience for heading the police force."

And, once he has been selected for the job, he should have a minimum tenure of at least two years irrespective of his date of superannuation, it had said.

The DGP may, however, be relieved of his responsibilities by the state government acting in consultation with the State Security Commission, consequent upon any action taken against him under the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules or following his conviction in a court of law in a criminal offence or a case of corruption, or if he is otherwise incapacitated from discharging his duties, the court had said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)