New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) not to finalise the selection of Odisha’s next Director General of Police until August 18, the date fixed for hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging the ongoing appointment process.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant asked the UPSC to defer a meeting scheduled for the same day so that the matter could be examined.
Senior Advocate P Chidambaram mentioned the petition before the court, arguing that the selection process violated the apex court’s directions in the landmark 2006 Prakash Singh judgment. That ruling requires states to appoint DGPs from a panel of the three senior-most eligible officers empanelled by the UPSC on the basis of length of service, professional record and experience, with a minimum two-year tenure.
Chidambaram alleged that an officer was promoted in an apparent bid to include the name in the panel sent to the commission ahead of an earlier UPSC empanelment exercise.
Odisha Advocate General Pitambar Acharya denied any breach of norms and questioned the maintainability of a PIL in what he described as a service dispute. The bench initially echoed similar reservations regarding maintainability, with Chief Justice Surya Kant observing that none of the potentially affected senior officers had personally approached the court.
However, the trajectory shifted after the bench sought the view of Senior Advocate Raju Ramachandran, who serves as the amicus curiae in the long-standing Prakash Singh implementation proceedings. Ramachandran supported the petition, stating that the process was being conducted in violation of the court’s guidelines.
Taking the amicus’s view into account, the court directed counsel for the UPSC to put the meeting on hold, the Live Law reported.
The controversy has arisen ahead of the retirement of incumbent DGP Y B Khurania, scheduled for August 16. The state had initially forwarded a short list of three DGP-rank officers—Sudhansu Sarangi (1990 batch), R P Koche and Susanta Nath (both 1993 batch)—to the UPSC in April. The following month it expanded the panel to 11 names by adding eight Additional Directors General of Police. The UPSC was scheduled to consider the matter on August 7. When the UPSC insisted on evaluating only DGP-ranked officers, the state withdrew the panel and moved swiftly to promote 1994-batch ADGPs Sanjeeb Panda and Yeshwant Kumar Jethwa to the DG rank in order to accommodate them in a revised list.
The developments drew scrutiny over whether the revised panel adheres to the seniority and eligibility norms laid down by the Supreme Court.
