New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider hearing the pending contempt petition against the Jharkhand government and Director General of Police (DGP) Neeraj Sinha alleging he has been occupying the post even after superannuation on January 31.

A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said it has issued notices on Monday on a fresh plea challenging the appointment of S K Singhal as the Director-General of Police (DGP) of Bihar and this pending contempt petition can be tagged along with that also.

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Lawyer Vikas Mehta, who was appearing for contempt petitioner Rajesh Kumar, sought a listing of the plea saying that it has not come up for hearing after September 3, 2021, when it was listed last.

“In other matter, we had issued the notice in the Bihar matter yesterday. We will post it along with that,” said the bench which also comprised Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli.

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On Monday, the same bench issued notices to the Bihar government and the UPSC on another plea filed by one Narendra Kumar Dhiraj, challenging the appointment of Singhal as the 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.

As per the contempt plea Sinha has been holding the top post of Jharkhand Police even after his superannuation on January 31.

The plea has been mentioned a few times earlier also for the hearing.

The apex court, on July 14, 2021, had issued notices on the contempt plea against the state government, its top officials, and the UPSC for alleged violation of its verdict.

It later also made Sinha a party to the contempt plea.

“The Respondents (state government, DGP, and others) are in continuous violation of the orders passed by this court. It has come to the knowledge of the petitioner that the tenure of respondent 3 (DGP) who has been appointed by the state government to the post of DG and IGP (Inspector-General of Police), Jharkhand has expired on January 31.

“The respondent 3 has crossed the age of retirement but still continues to be on the current post which is also in the teeth of the orders passed by this court,” said the interim application which sought urgent hearing of the pending contempt plea.

The apex court on September 3, 2021, had pulled up the state government and the Union Public Service Commission for their roles in the appointment of an interim DGP in alleged violation of the top court's judgement 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.

It was irked over the fact that the state government had appointed IPS officer Neeraj Sinha as an ad-hoc Director General of Police (DGP) and the UPSC has been refusing to prepare a list of senior police officers for the selection of the DGP.

Prior to this, on July 14 last year, the top court had issued the show-cause notices to the Chief Secretary of Jharkhand and the Chairman of UPSC, on the plea seeking contempt action against them for the alleged violation of the 2006 judgement of the top court rendered in the Prakash Singh case.

It has been alleged that Chief Minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress coalition government flouted the verdict, which, besides issuing many directions on police reforms, had fixed two years' assured tenure for DGPs.

The UPSC has been alleged to have committed contempt of the apex court by failing to form a panel for the selection of the new DGP for Jharkhand.

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 in a case of corruption, or if he is otherwise incapacitated from discharging his duties, it 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)