Two senior Uttarakhand IPS officers have approached the High Court against their central deputation, claiming they were assigned positions lower than their current positions. Both of the officers are currently serving as Inspector Generals (IGs) in the Uttarakhand Police, but they have been deputed to the DIG rank in the central forces, which they claim violates the service rules.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay heard the petition and sought a response from the government.
According to the plea, the Union Home Ministry issued orders deputing IPS officer Neeru Garg (IPS: 2005:UK) as DIG in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and IPS officer Arun Mohan Joshi (IPS: 2006:UK) as DIG in the Border Security Force (BSF).
The two officers have contended that their central deputation is improper, as they neither applied for it nor gave their consent to it, and that assigning them to the rank of DIG amounts to a posting at a lower rank, which violates service rules.
Moreover, the two officers have also argued that despite expressing their unwillingness to go on central deputation, the state government forwarded their names to the Centre on February 16, 2026, following which the deputation orders were issued.
The state govt, during the hearing, submitted that if the officers had objections to the decision, they should approach the Central Administrative Tribunal.
However, the petitioners contended that since the proposal was given by the state govt., it was proper to raise the matter before the High Court.
After hearing the submissions from both sides, the bench directed the state government to submit its response on the issue.
The matter is likely to be taken up for further hearing after the state govt submits its reply.
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