The judicial tirade against the Odisha government over the DGP empanelment list continued unabated on Thursday with the Supreme Court asking the state govt some biting questions. When the top court resumed its hearing on Thursday it asked the state govt if it had put senior IPS officer Susanta Kumar Nath (IPS:1993:OD) in the category of accused in the Sub-Inspector recruitment scam case.
The Odisha govt had withdrawn Nath’s integrity certificate during the empanelment committee meeting held by the UPSC and excluded his name from its revised list of officers sent to the UPSC for the DGP empanelment.
A three-judge bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana passed the order after noting that Odisha government had withdrawn Susanta Kumar Nath’s integrity certificate over CBI’s request to question him in connection with the case.
The Odisha govt had sent a panel of 11 IPS officers, including Nath, to the UPSC in May this year to shortlist three names to choose a successor to the outgoing DGP, but later withdrew his name from the panel after the CBI claimed he might be needed for questioning in the case.
The SC bench asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Odisha government, if the state was putting Nath in the category of accused by withholding his integrity certificate.
Justice Bagchi was more pointed when he said that a shadow may be cast on the officer by such action.
Mehta submitted that the Odisha govt started the DGP selection process six months before the incumbent DGP was to retire as per the apex court’s guidelines in the Prakash Singh case.
Mehta later quoted the CBI as saying that the entire examination process was under investigation, including the role of the examination-conducting agencies, the Odisha Police Recruitment Board, and others. Nath was the chairman of the Board when the alleged scam took place.
The Odisha govt also informed the top court that the CBI had sought permission to interrogate certain officers and after their questioning it was said that Susanta Kumar Nath could be required for further examination. “This is what the CBI told us on August 4, 2026,” Mehta told the court.
He added that it was after the CBI’s request that the state govt decided to exclude Nath from the panel and forwarded a revised proposal containing integrity certificates in respect of only 10 officers for empanelment.
It all transpired during the top court’s hearing of a PIL alleging that the Odisha govt was trying to breach the apex court’s directions in the Prakash Singh case by including a junior officer in the list for the DGP empanelment by granting him promotion.
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