Supreme Court extends term of Punjab, Haryana DGPs

The police chiefs of Punjab and Haryana, who were due to retire on December 31, were given a one-month extension by the Supreme Court on Wednesday. This order came as an interim arrangement in the police reforms case pending in the apex court, where the respective states have challenged the requirement of consulting the Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) to appoint the Director General of Police (DGP).

The two states were aggrieved by the order passed by the Supreme Court in the police reforms case, making it compulsory for states to submit a panel of names to UPSC three months prior to the vacancy of the DGP post. The UPSC will then approve and recommend names based on merit and seniority such that the recommended candidate has a two-year fixed tenure.

Punjab and Haryana passed laws that nullified SC’s direction. They held that UPSC should not be consulted; the selection of the police chief should be the state’s discretion. Senior advocate P Chidambaram appeared for Punjab, while senior advocate Shyam Divan represented Haryana.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph reminded the states that on July 3, the apex court had issued a further direction that any law which is contrary to Court’s directions shall be kept in abeyance. “Effectively, you want our July 3 order to go but we are not inclined to change our order,” the Bench told Chidambaram.

Chidambaram urged the Court that Punjab DGP Suresh Arora is due to retire on December 31, as is BS Sandhu of Haryana. The bench replied that an urgent hearing cannot be given until they heard the objections from the original petitioner and former DGP Prakash Singh, who was represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan. The Court fixed the hearing on January 8 and extended the term of the serving DGPs till January 31.

Besides Punjab and Haryana, the two states, Bihar and West Bengal have also moved applications requiring exemption from going to the UPSC. In Bihar, the incumbent DGP is due to retire only by January 31. In West Bengal’s case, its formal application challenging the Court’s order is yet to be filed, thus the Court did not grant it any hearing.