Who's the next Bihar DGP? SC directs UPSC, Bihar govt to decide successor

The apex court asked the UPSC to finalise three names of senior police officers from the list provided by the state government which will have to take a final call on the DGP on or before January 2, next year.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Friday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the Bihar government to expeditiously decide the name of the successor of incumbent Director-General of Police (DGP) S K Singhal who is demitting office on December 19. A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha asked the UPSC to finalise three names of senior police officers from the list provided by the state government which will have to take a final call on the DGP on or before January 2, next year.

The court said that the UPSC has already constituted a panel to shortlist the names of officers on December 14, 2022, and will have to decide at the earliest. The state of Bihar shall take the consequential steps on or before January 2, 2023, the bench said. As per the reports, the state government has recently provided the names of 11 senior police officers to the UPSC which in turn will have to finalise three names.

The state government will have the liberty to appoint any of the three officers, shortlisted by the UPSC, as the DGP. The top court, on March 7, this year, sought responses from the Bihar government and the UPSC on a PIL challenging the appointment of Singhal as the Director-General of Police (DGP) contending that it violated the apex court judgement.

The apex court had also issued notice to Singhal, a 1988 batch Bihar cadre IPS officer, who was appointed as the state DGP in December 2020. Singhal, who was given the additional power of the DGP after the voluntary retirement of his predecessor Gupteshwar Pandey, was later appointed to the post without following due procedure.

The 2006 apex court verdict in the Prakash Singh case said that the DGP of a state shall be "selected by the state government from amongst the three senior-most officers of the department who have been empanelled for promotion to that rank by the UPSC on the basis of their length of service, very good record and range of experience for heading the police force."

And, once he has been selected for the job, he should have a minimum tenure of at least two years irrespective of his date of superannuation, it had said. The DGP may, however, be relieved of his responsibilities by the state government acting in consultation with the State Security Commission, consequent upon any action taken against him under the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules or following his conviction in a court of law in a criminal offence or a case of corruption, or if he is otherwise incapacitated from discharging his duties, the court had said. (PTI)