The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has begun the process to appoint a regular Director General of Police (DGP) in Telangana. It has written to the state government to send a panel of eligible DGP-rank officers.
This comes weeks after a Supreme Court order dated February 5, 2026. The court directed the UPSC to finish the selection process within four weeks. Sources said the UPSC has asked the state to treat February 5 as the date of vacancy while preparing the panel.
This has sparked discussion in the state police department. The current in-charge DGP, B Shivadhar Reddy (IPS:1994:TG), will retire on April 30. If February 5 is treated as the vacancy date, the eligibility rule becomes important.
As per the Supreme Court’s guidelines in the Prakash Singh case, an officer must have at least six months of service left from the date of vacancy to be considered for DGP. Since Reddy retires on April 30, he may not meet this condition if February 5 is taken as the vacancy date. It is still not clear if his name will be sent to the UPSC.
The state has been asked to send the names of eligible officers soon. The UPSC will review the list and then shortlist three names based on merit.
Telangana has six DGP-rank officers at present — CV Anand (IPS:1991:TG), B Shivadhar Reddy (IPS:1994:TG), Apte Vinayak Prabhakar (IPS:1994:TG), Sowmya Mishra (IPS:1994:TG), Shikha Goel (IPS:1994:TG) and Abhilasha Bisht (IPS:1994:TG).
The court’s order is meant to ensure that states appoint regular DGPs and not keep in-charge officers, as directed in the Prakash Singh judgment.
The UPSC also sent similar letters to nine other states. These states had not complied with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Prakash Singh case. Instead, they had appointed in-charge DGP’s instead of regular DGPs under the prescribed guidelines.
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