Mohammad Mustafa (IPS:1985:PB) and Siddharth Chattopadhyaya (IPS:1986:PB) have challenged in the Supreme Court the UPSC’s recommendation of three junior officers for the post of state DGP completely ignoring their candidacy. The matter is listed for hearing next Monday.

 

Dinkar Gupta, a 1987-batch officer was appointed as Punjab DGP by the state government after his name was empaneled by the UPSC for the post. Gupta superseded five senior officers including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya. Both Mustafa and Chattopadhyay have two years of service left before retirement.

 

Mustafa has reportedly said that, even though he qualified on all parameters, the UPSC was deliberately kept in the dark when it recommend the officers for the post.

 

Reportedly, the political career of Mustafa’s wife was flagged at the meeting conducted by the commission to discuss the appointment, at which chief secretary Karan Avtar Singh and former DGP Suresh Arora were also present, said sources. His wife, Razia Sultana, is a minister in Captain Amarinder Singh’s state cabinet.

 

The UPSC is not appointing any officer who has less than two years of service left as DGP, thereby superseding senior officers in states like Bihar, Haryana and Punjab where DGPs have recently been appointed.

 

Last year, the Punjab police was engulfed by a scandal when Chattopadhyaya, then DGP (human resource development), told the Punjab and Haryana high court that he was probing the role of Gupta, along with his predecessor, Arora, in a drug case, and was therefore being targeted by them.

 

A month later, he was transferred as DGP Punjab state power Corporation limited (PSPCL).

 

Some opposition parties have, therefore, questioned the UPSC about why it didn’t take cognizance of these serious allegations against Gupta before empaneling him for the top post.

 

The UPSC, which was asked by the Supreme Court in January, to empanel officers for the post of DGP in states, has been under the scanner ever since the order.

 

Earlier this month, former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, Prakash Singh, moved the court challenging UPSC’s implementation of the court orders.

 

According to Singh, the court’s directive that DGPs should have a fixed tenure of two years has led the UPSC to unfairly exclude senior IPS officers close to retirement from the promotion exercise.