BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday issued a notice to the state government on a petition filed by M N Reddi, DGP and Head of Home Guards, Civil Defence and Fire & Emergency Services.
Reddi moved the court questioning the procedure followed by the state government for the appointment of Neelamani N Raju as DG&IGP in 2017. This came after the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) did not consider his application for interim direction to the state for empanelling eligible IPS officers for a fresh process to select the DG&IGP post.
Hearing Reddi’s petition, the division bench of Justice L Narayana Swamy and Justice R Devdas issued a notice to the state and adjourned the hearing to June 24.
Reddi contended that the state had not adopted guidelines issued by the Supreme Court for recommending the names of eligible IPS officers to UPSC for selection of candidate for the post of DG and IGP.Therefore, the appointment of Neelamani as DG and IGP on October 31, 2017 is a violation of SC guidelines. So, it has to be quashed and directions should be issued to the State for a fresh process of selection for State Police Chief, Reddi said to the court.
Giving reasons for questioning the appointment, Reddi contended that Neelamani was appointed based on the selection made by a high power committee formed by the state government and hence it amounts to violation of procedure laid down by the apex court.
Highlighting procedural lapses, Reddi contended that in 2019, the apex court made it clear that IPS officers considered for selection to the top post must have a minimum six months of service left.Reddi claimed that he would miss the chance for fresh appointment process, if the same is not started at the earliest as only seven-and-a-half months of service is left for him.