CHANDIGARH: The Punjab government on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that set aside the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab Director General of Police.
Additional Advocate General Rameeza Hakim who appeared on behalf of the state government before the Division Bench of Justice Rajiv Sharma and Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu sought to fix the case for hearing on Tuesday. Also, a counsel for DGP Gupta appeared before the court seeking the fixing of a hearing in the case.
Taking note of the submissions, the bench allowed the listing of the case for hearing on Tuesday. Both the petitions are expected to be clubbed together for hearing.
On Friday, the CAT had set aside the appointment of Gupta as Punjab DGP. The two-member bench of Justice L. Narasimha Reddy who is the Chairman of CAT and Mohd. Jamshed who is Member Administrative in its order directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the empanelment committee to form a new panel of three senior-most officers for appointment to the post of DGP and complete the exercise within four weeks.
Two separate petitions were filed with the CAT by two senior Punjab IPS officers, Mohammad Mustafa of 1985 batch and Siddarth Chattopadhyaya of 1986 batch in February last year, seeking quashing of the order of appointment of Gupta.
On February 7, last year the Punjab Government had appointed Gupta a 1987 batch IPS officer as the DGP who had superseded five senior officers based on the recommendations made by the Empanelment Committee constituted by the UPSC.