An interesting issue has cropped up between the Haryana government and the UPSC even as the latter gets into the acting of shortlisting three officers from a state list of 10 to select a new DGP for the state.

The issue of seniority of IPS officer Manoj Yadav is seen differently by the Haryana government and the UPSC. While the latter believes that Yadav belongs to the 1989 batch as he joined that year, the state government has argued that even though he joined in 1989, Yadav was assigned the cadre in 1988, and has thus completed 30 years of service.

Yadava is currently on central deputation. He is among the 10 IPS officers from Haryana whose names were sent to UPSC.

On January 31, while state government was waiting for a call from UPSC to set time for a meeting of the committee to decide on the panel, it instead got a letter from the service commission. In its communication to Haryana, UPSC had asked the state government to exclude the name of Yadava for the want of completion of 30 years of service. “It is, therefore, requested that his name may be excluded from the list of eligible candidates and a revised eligibility list may be furnished,’’ the communication said.

Unwilling to ignore the possibility of unwanted litigation, the government has responded to UPSC that it Yadava should be considered. The communication sent by the additional chief secretary (ACS) of Haryana’s home department S S Prasad elaborated upon the IPS officer’s service conditions.

“This case is curious enough to be dealt in detail and as a matter of abundant caution, his case must be flagged with an appreciation of facts and circumstances leading to his joining of service a year later along with other 19 officers of the same batch. Such a measure will prompt the possibility of avoidable litigation,’’ the communication made on February 2 reads.

The ACS has also referred to various judgments related to the issue of seniority.