The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has recently raised questions over the list of IPS officers sent by the Jharkhand government for the appointment of a regular Director General of Police (DGP). The fiasco emerged after the state government included the name of former DGP Ajay Kumar Singh in its list of four IPS officers sent to the UPSC for shortlisting.
A 1989 batch IPS officer, Mr. Ajay Kumar Singh, had been appointed as a regular DGP in 2023 for a two-year term but was replaced by his junior Mr. Anurag Gupta, a 1990 batch IPS officer, as an acting DGP before the expiry of his tenure. Irked by this development, the UPSC has issued a notice to the state government asking for explanation as to under which circumstances Officer Ajay Kumar Singh was replaced mid way by an acting DGP.
The UPSC has also raised the issue as to why the Supreme Court’s directive given in the Prakash Singh vs the Union of India case 2006, was not implemented. The apex court had ruled that a state government must appoint a DGP for a fixed two-year term.
Interestingly, the Hemant Soren government is already facing flak of contempt charges for the same reason in the Supreme Court. The contempt petition says that IPS Gupta was appointed on an ad-hoc basis in contravention of the apex court judgment which laid down procedures for the appointment of the DGPs in States. It was this case that opened a Pandora’s box with the apex court issuing notices to eight states for preferring to have acting DGPs instead of appointing the regular ones.
