Regular DGP: No reply, UPSC again writes to Punjab government for panel

Chandigarh: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has again written to the Punjab government seeking a panel of eligible officers for the regular appointment of the state's director general of police (DGP) after the state failed to respond within the stipulated time.In the reminder, UPSC secretary Shashi Ranjan Kumar wrote to Punjab chief secretary K A P Sinha, asking him to "personally" examine the matter and instruct the officials concerned to send the panel of eligible officers, TOI has learnt.The letter from Kumar to Sinha was written on March 5.Kumar cited the Feb 18 letter from UPSC to Punjab govt, in which the UPSC, while referring to the Supreme Court's Feb 5 directions, requested the state to send a complete proposal within 10 days.

After receiving the Feb 18 letter, the Punjab home department sought details of eligible officers, since it "has records of the officers".On Feb 5, the apex court slammed the practice of some states having acting DGPs and directed UPSC to act against them. In its letter on Feb 18, UPSC wrote that it considered the date of occurrence of the vacancy as Feb 5, the date of the Supreme Court's latest directions in the matter.

The UPSC letter to Punjab on Feb 18 cited Supreme Court's warning that if the states failed to submit timely proposals, the UPSC was authorised to move an application before the court for enforcement, with "necessary consequences" for those responsible for the delay.Superseding several senior officers, Gaurav Yadav, a 1992-batch IPS officer of the Punjab cadre, was appointed as acting DGP in July 2022 by the AAP-led govt, which stormed to power earlier that year in March.

Yadav has since held the post for 3 years and 8 months.With the aim of circumventing the Supreme Court-mandated UPSC procedure for selecting the DGP, the Punjab assembly, in June 2023, passed the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill 2023. The bill provided for selecting the DGP with a state-controlled seven-member empanelment committee. The bill, according to an official, was lying with the President after being referred by the governor.As per the procedure adopted by UPSC, its empanelment committee selects three candidates based on seniority, experience and service records from the panel of eligible officers sent by the state, and subsequently the state chooses one of them as DGP.