Supreme Court fiat to states on DGP appointments

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday restrained all states from appointing Director General of Police in an acting capacity, which is not permissible as per the 2006 Prakaksh Singh judgment.

A three-judge Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices A.M. Kanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud passed this order on a petition seeking implementation of the 2006 Prakash Singh judgment giving a series of directions to the states.

The bench said endeavour should be made by all concerned to ensure that the person selected and appointed, as DGP shall continue to hold the post despite superannuation. It said the States should approach the UPSC three months before the retirement of DGP. UPSC will finalise 3 names and state can then appoint one of them.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal informed the court that the practice being adopted by several States is that first an acting DGP is appointed. Then as he is about to retire, he is appointed as the regular DGP and thereby he gets two years extra on account of the Prakash Singh judgment (which says there must be a fixed tenure of two years).

The AG said only five States of Tamil nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan have approached the UPSC for selection of DGPs.