NEW DELHI: Despite a Supreme Court order to progressively reduce IPS deputation in the Central Armed Police Forces and subsequent directions from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs seeking cadre review proposals for Group ‘A’ officers, Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has written to states asking them to depute more senior police officers to the Centre.
In the letter, a copy of which is with the TNIE, the Home Secretary has informed the states that there is a shortage of police officers to fill the middle to senior positions in the CAPFs and Central Police Organisations (CPOs), which include the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
Notably, the letter was sent in the first week of January despite the fact that the Supreme Court had on October 28, 2025, dismissed a review petition filed by the Union Government against the court’s May 23, 2025 ruling to “progressively reduce” the deputation of IPS officers in the senior administrative grade (SAG) or up to the rank of Inspector-General in the CAPFs.
The court’s order came in the backdrop of reserved positions for IPS officers in the rank of Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) – 20 percent and Inspector-General (IG)- 50 percent.
The court’s ruling was meant to gradually reduce the number of IPS officers manning SAG positions in the CAPFs. Around 13,000 CAPF officers were supposed to benefit from the judgment, leading to faster promotions and overcoming issues of stagnation.
The MHA is the cadre-controlling authority for both the CAPFs personnel and the IPS officers.
As on December 23, out of the 188 posts at the DIG/IG level that are reserved for IPS officers in the CAPFs such as BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP and the SSB, 36 posts are vacant.
In the letter the Home Secretary noted that 40 percent of senior duty posts in each cadre are earmarked as Central Deputation Reserve (CDR). “However, it has been the experience that some of the States/cadres do not send sufficient number of nominations for Central deputation,” he said in the letter.
Further, the State governments send more names of senior IPS officers, but they do not propose the names for appointment to the posts of Superintendent of Police to Inspector-General, he added.
“It would, therefore, be appropriate if a conscious attempt is made by the State governments to forward the nominations of officers for deputation in such a manner that officers of different levels/ranks are adequately and proportionately represented, as well as every eligible officer gets an opportunity to serve at the Centre,” the letter read.
In the letter Mohan also said that the CDR of each IPS cadre determines the extent to which the number of officers could be sent on deputation to the Government of India. “States need to sponsor an adequate number of officers so that posts reserved for IPS officers in the CAPFs/CPOs are manned by them. ...Sometimes State governments withdraw the names of the officers from offer, subsequent to their selection to a post or do not relieve them for taking up the assignment at the Centre consequent upon their selection. This results in considerable delay in placement of officers at the Centre and adversely impacts the entire process of selection, deputation and cadre management,” he said in the letter.