CHANDIGARH: After nearly four years, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Punjab government is set to send a panel of senior Indian Police Service officers to the Union Public Service Commission for the appointment of a regular Director General of Police. The state has not forwarded a panel to the UPSC since it came to power in 2022.
Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann told the media, “We are in the process of sending a panel. We will follow rules.”
The UPSC has twice written to the state government asking it to send the panel for the appointment of a regular DGP. On March 5, the commission again wrote to the government seeking a panel of eligible officers after the state failed to respond within the stipulated time. The UPSC had earlier written the same on February 18. In its reminder, UPSC secretary Shashi Ranjan Kumar wrote to Punjab chief secretary K A P Sinha, asking him to personally examine the matter and instruct the officials concerned to send the panel of eligible officers. In the earlier letter, it had referred to the February 5 directions of the Supreme Court requesting the state to send a complete proposal within ten days.
At present, Gaurav Yadav, a 1992 batch IPS officer of the Punjab cadre, has been officiating as the acting DGP since July 2022. He has superseded many senior officers, including Sharad Satya Chauhan and Harpreet Singh Sidhu, who are also from the same batch but senior to him, and another batchmate, Kuldeep Singh, who is junior to him in the batch. Sanjeev Kalra, a 1989 batch IPS officer, retired on February 28 while serving as DGP (Home Guards and Civil Defence). Another officer of the 1989 batch, Parag Jain, is presently posted as chief of the Research and Analysis Wing.
As per the procedure followed by the UPSC, its empanelment committee selects three candidates based on seniority, experience and service records from the panel of eligible officers sent by the state. The state then chooses one of them as DGP. In June 2023, the Punjab assembly passed the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill 2023, which provided for selecting the DGP through a state-controlled seven-member empanelment committee. The bill, however, has been lying with the President after being referred by the governor.
The Punjab government has now written to the UPSC requesting that it allow the additional chief secretary (home) to be a member of the empanelment committee, since the state’s acting DGP Yadav cannot be part of the committee as he will be one of the contenders. Apart from the chief secretary, who represents the state government in the panel, other members of the empanelment committee are the UPSC chairman or a member acting as chairman, the Union home secretary or his nominee not below the rank of special secretary to the Union government, and the head of the central police organisation nominated by the Ministry of Home Affairs who is not from the same state cadre for which the selection is made.
On March 12, the Supreme Court pulled up the Punjab government along with other states for violating its judgment on the appointment of DGPs by not sending the panel of eligible officers to the UPSC.