A deadlock of sorts seems to be brewing over the appointment of a regular Punjab DGP, with the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) writing again to the Punjab government seeking a panel of eligible officers for the appointment of a regular DGP for the state. The commission’s earlier letter to the state govt for the same failed to extract any response within the stipulated time.
The fresh letter is learnt to have been written by the UPSC on March 5.
The reminder reportedly sent by the UPSC Secretary, Shashi Ranjan Kumar, is addressed to Punjab Chief Secretary K A P Sinha, asking him to “personally” examine the matter and instruct the officials concerned to send the panel of eligible officers.
In the reminder, Kumar has referred to the Feb 18 letter, in which the UPSC cited the Supreme Court’s Feb 5 directions, requesting the state govt to send a complete proposal within 10 days.
It needs to be recalled here that the apex court had slammed the practice of some states having acting DGPs and directed the UPSC to act against the states that dilly-dally in sending proposals for DGP empanelment in its ruling on Feb 5.
Interestingly, the state Home Department, after receiving the UPSC’s Feb 18 communication, even sought details of eligible officers, saying it “has records of the officers.”
Not only this, but the UPSC, in its Feb 18 letter, had clarified that it considered the date of occurrence of the vacancy as Feb 5, the date of the Supreme Court’s latest directions in the matter.
The Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann govt had appointed a 1992-batch IPS officer, Gaurav Yadav, as an acting DGP in July 2022 by superseding several senior officers soon after assuming power in the state. Yadav has since been holding the post for 3 years and 8 months now.
The state govt went a step further to circumvent the Supreme Court-mandated UPSC procedure for selecting the DGP and passed the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill 2023. The bill provided for selecting the DGP with a state-controlled seven-member empanelment committee.
According to government sources, the bill is lying with the President for approval after being referred by the Governor.
As per established norms, the UPSC’s Empanelment Committee selects three names from the panel of officers sent by the state govt. on the basis of seniority, experience, and service records, and subsequently forwards the panel to the state govt to choose one of them as the DGP.
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