SC notice on plea challenging Bihar DGP appointment

The court issued notice on the petition to Bihar government, DGP Singhal and Union Public Service Commission without fixing the next date of hearing.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice on a petition questioning the appointment of Bihar police chief in violation of the Supreme Court’s directions in a 2006 case, requiring states to prepare a panel of names from among the senior most police officers for appointing director general of police (DGP) having a fixed tenure of two years.

The court issued notice on the petition to Bihar government, DGP Singhal and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) without fixing the next date of hearing. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana issued notice on a petition filed by Narendra Kumar Dhiraj challenging the appointment of Sanjeev Kumar Singhal as the DGP of Bihar. The petition said that Singhal, a 1988-batch IPS officer was initially given additional charge as DGP in September 2020 and by a subsequent order on December 19, 2020, he was made DGP for a two-year tenure.

The bench, also comprising justices AS Bopanna and Hima Kohli, initially asked the petitioner to approach the Patna high court. However, senior advocate Jay Savla along with advocate Amrita Kumari, appearing for the petitioner, said that two similar matters challenging appointment of DGPs are pending before the top court. One of the petitions relates to Jharkhand, Savla said.

The court issued notice on the petition to Bihar government, DGP Singhal and Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) without fixing the next date of hearing.The petition pointed out that as per the Prakash Singh judgment delivered by the top court in 2006, a person appointed to the top post as DGP should be empaneled by the UPSC. However, in the present case, Savla argued that in a RTI response, the UPSC informed the petitioner that no empanelment committee was formed before appointing Singhal.

The petition said, “The person whose superannuation was in August 2021 will now retire in December 2022. He will enjoy a total term of two years and three months as DGP and after retirement, he will enjoy the services for more than one year, four months.