Punjab govt, Dinkar Gupta move high court against CAT order

On Tuesday, court to hear pleas of state govt, police chief challenging the Central Administrative Tribunal order that set aside Gupta’s appointment as Punjab DGP

The Punjab government and director general of police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta on Monday moved the Punjab and Haryana high court, challenging the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) order that set aside his appointment as head of the state’s police.

Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta with chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh, who has reiterated that he will continue on the post. (HT file photo)

Punjab additional advocate general Rameeza Hakeem made a request for an urgent listing of appeal against the CAT order before the bench of justice Rajiv Sharma and justice HS Sidhu, which was allowed. A counsel too appeared for Gupta. Both appeals will now be taken up for hearing on Tuesday.

A 1987-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Gupta had superseded five officers to be named the state police chief on February 7, 2019.

IPS officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddharth Chattopadhyaya challenged Gupta’s appointment on the ground that they were “ignored” despite being senior to Gupta and having an outstanding service record. While Mustafa is a 1985-batch officer and Chattopadhyaya a 1986-batch officer, Gupta is a 1987-batch officer. Besides them, the other officers superseded were Hardeep Dhillon, Jasminder Singh and Samant Goel.

The CAT on Friday quashed the February 2019 appointment of Gupta, observing that the procedure adopted by the empanelment committee and the Union Public Service Commission for preparing the panel violated the Supreme Court judgment in the Prakash Singh case. “It is clear that the selection process, which was galvanised, has been virtually ignored and defeated with impunity,” the tribunal observed, giving four weeks to the UPSC and the empanelment committee to make fresh recommendations of three officers.