New Delhi (18.02.2024): On state governments appointing officiating Director General of Police (DGP) despite the availability of eligible officers, Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has told ‘defaulting’ states to follow the Supreme Court’s directives on such appointments.
A letter was sent last week from the office of the Union Home Secretary to the Chief Secretaries of seven states that have officiating state police chiefs. These states are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha and West Bengal. Punjab got the MHA notice on this earlier on Gaurav Yadav (IPS: 1992: PB) while Uttar Pradesh got the fourth successive officiating DGP as Prashant Kumar (IPS: 1988: UP) on January 31, 2023.
An official of the ministry informed that the letter underlined SC directives on appointment of DGPs in the Prakash Singh case. The letter has told states citing SC directions that temporary or “acting DGPs” are to be avoided and appointed only in exceptional circumstances. It said states must follow the apex court’s directions on appointing regular DGPs with a tenure of two years. The SC directions are to be applicable to states and not Union Territories, so Jammu and Kashmir administration doesn’t include in this.
While Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, UP and Punjab have had such temporary DGPs for almost or more than a year, four other states, UP, Uttarakhand, Odisha and West Bengal, and the Union Territory of J&K, have recently appointed “acting DGPs”. Uttar Pradesh has had four acting DGPs in the past 20 months.
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