HC stays CAT order to set aside DGP appointment in Punjab

In a major relief to Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday stayed the operation of order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that set aside his appointment.

A bench of Justices Jaswant Singh and Sant Parkash Singh issued notice to Punjab, the Central government and other respondents for the next date of hearing on February 26.

The bench asked the state to file an affidavit regarding the names forwarded to the Union Public Service Commission for the selection of the DGP.

Punjab had forwarded names of 12 officers.

As per the Department of Personnel and Training rules, a state is required to forward five names for DGP's post. If that was criterion, then Gupta would have been out of the list of probable candidates.

The state government on Monday moved the High Court against the CAT January 17 decision.

Allowing the application filed by senior Indian Police Services (IPS) officers Siddharth Chattopadhyay and Mohammad Mustafa, the tribunal asked the government to make the appointment as per the procedure laid out by the Supreme Court within four weeks.

A 1987 batch IPS officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers to be named the state police chief on February 7, 2019.

Mustafa and Chattopadhyay had challenged the government decision in the tribunal, saying they were ignored for the post despite fulfilling the criterion.

Besides them, the other officers are Hardeep Dhillon, Jasminder Singh and Samant Goel.

( With inputs from IANS )