Policing of eight states including UP depends on acting DGP, know the order of Supreme Court
In Uttar Pradesh, for the last one and a half years, the chair of the police chief has been in the hands of the caretaker. Current acting DGP Vijay Kumar is due to retire on January 31. This time also the picture is not clear whether the state will get a permanent DGP or the work will be run by a caretaker. However, not only UP, there are seven other states of the country where the services of acting DGP are being taken. The latest name added to this list is that of Rajasthan. Apart from UP and Rajasthan, at present acting DGP is also deployed in Uttarakhand, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Orissa and West Bengal. However, there is a clear order of the Supreme Court that acting DGP cannot be appointed.
Despite the strictness of the Supreme Court, deployment continues
In 2006, the Supreme Court had ordered the appointment of DGP through UPSC on the petition of former UP DGP Prakash Singh regarding police reforms. But some states accepted it and many did not. In the year 2018, the Supreme Court became strict regarding this and said that UPSC will have to send a panel.
Despite the strictness of the Supreme Court, the first acting DGP was posted in Andhra Pradesh in the form of Rajendra Reddy in February 2022. After this, in May 2022, Dr. DS Chauhan was made the acting DGP of UP and this trend is still continuing. This is the third acting DGP posted in UP in about one and a half years.
Writ against UP and Punjab
A writ was filed in the Supreme Court regarding the posting of acting DGP in UP and Punjab. However it did not reach any result. Former DGP Prakash Singh has applied in the Supreme Court for some further amendments in his own writ. He is currently waiting for the hearing date.
What do former officers say?
Former UP DGP Prakash Singh says that governments are appointing acting DGP to appoint their favorite officer as DGP. According to the instructions of UPSC, there is an option to make any one of the top three as DGP. To avoid this process, the government is not sending the panel to UPSC.
Former DGP Sulkhan Singh says that the Supreme Court has clearly refused to appoint an acting DGP. Soon many states have joined this trend. They do not want to make an impartial DGP, hence a caretaker is being deployed. The force does not take the caretaker that seriously and does not consider him a leader.
