India News | Will Deal with Legal Issue on Applicability of SC Verdict on Appointment of DGP in Case of Delhi CP: CJI

New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday said it would deal with the legal issue whether its judgement laying down procedure for the appointment of Director General of Police (DGP) in states would also be applicable for appointing the Delhi Police Commissioner.

The court was hearing an appeal of NGO Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), challenging the appointment of now-retired IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police Commissioner.

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Asthana, a 1984-batch Gujarat cadre IPS Officer who was serving as the Director General of Border Security Force, was appointed the Delhi Police Commissioner on July 27, 2021 just four days before he was scheduled to retire from service after being shifted to the Union Territory cadre from Gujarat cadre for the tenure of one year.

While dismissing the plea of the NGO, the high court, on October 12 last year, had said the Supreme Court's decision in the Prakash Singh case, which mandated a minimum tenure for certain police officials and the constitution of a UPSC panel before selection, was not applicable to the appointment of Police Commissioner for Delhi but were “intended to apply only to the appointment of a State DGP”.

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On Friday, a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha was told by lawyer Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, that though Asthana has retired on July 31 this year, but the legal issues with regard to applicability of the apex court's directions on appointment of the DGP in Delhi's context has to be decided.

“We will deal with this legal issue,” said the CJI.

In its affidavit, the Centre had said the NGO's petition is an abuse of the process of law and manifestly, an outcome of some personal vendetta against the then police commissioner.

"This becomes clear from the fact that though the petition is based on Prakash Singh (a 2006 verdict of the apex court), eight IPS officers have been appointed by the Centre as police commissioners of Delhi by the very same procedure which has been followed while making the appointment in the present case," it had said.

The high court, in its verdict, had upheld the Centre's decision to appoint Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner, saying there was “no irregularity, illegality or infirmity” in his selection.

Dismissing the PIL challenging his selection, it had said the justification and reasons given by the Centre for appointing Asthana are plausible, calling for no interference in judicial review.

The 2006 apex court verdict in the Prakash Singh case 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)