NEW DELHI: After a long and protracted tussle between erstwhile DMK-led state government and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Tamil Nadu is set to get a new full-time Director General of Police (DGP)/Head of Police Force (HoPF), as the latter has finally cleared a panel of three senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer for appointing one of them to the post.
Sources here in the UPSC said that the Commission has cleared the names of three senior IPS officers, including Rajiv Kumar, Sandeep Rai Rathore and Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, for the post, and one among them would be appointed as the next DGP/HoPF by the TVK leader and Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
The revised list of IPS officers sent to the UPSC by the state government included Seema Agarwal, who belonged to the 1990-batch and was the senior most, but she failed to get the nomination in the panel, as she is scheduled to retire in June.
It is to be noted here that as per the guidelines prescribed by the Supreme Court for the appointment of DGPs of the state, only officers having residual service of at least six months could be considered and this case only officers having service left till August 30 could be considered.
Others in the state’s list included Sandeep Rai Rathore, who was appointed by the Election Commission of India (EC), K Vanni Perumal, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal and G Venkatraman, who held the post of DGP in-charge till he was shifted by the EC following the announcement of the schedule for conducting the recently concluded assembly elections in the state.
Incidentally, 1992-batch IPS officer Rajeev Kumar has his service tenure until December 2028, and his batchmate Sandeep Rai Rathore also has service tenure until February 2028.
The last regular DGP/ HoPF in Tamil Nadu was Shankar Jiwal, who retired on August 31, 2025 and since then the state has not had a regular DGP due to ongoing legal and administrative delays regarding the empanelment process.
Earlier, in September last year the UPSC had recommended a panel of three officers, but the then DMK government in the state continued with an ad hoc arrangement.
