The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has shortlisted three Haryana IPS officers — Muhammad Akil, RC Mishra (1989 batch) and Shatrujeet Kapur (1990 batch) — for the post of next Director General of Police (DGP), on Thursday.
An empanelment committee of the UPSC in New Delhi decided to overlook the name of senior most Haryana IPS officer Manoj Yadava as the officer has expressed his unwillingness to return to his parent cadre. He was recently appointed as the director general, Railway Protection Force (RPF), a Central government assignment.
The commission had earlier written to the state government seeking Yadava’s service record so as to make it a part of the proposal sent by the latter for selection of the next DGP in light of the SC directives and MHA undertakings in the apex court that the consent of an officer is not required for the purpose of empanelment as the DGP of the state. The MHA response before the SC came during the January hearing of an interlocutory application filed by the Nagaland government in the Supreme Court.
The UPSC communique to the state government came after the Haryana government omitted Yadava’s name from the proposal containing the names of nine IPS officers to the UPSC for shortlisting three officers for the job of state police chief. Yadava, who remained Haryana DGP from 2019 to 2021, is on Central deputation.
However, the state government refused to send Yadava’s service record stating his unwillingness and his appointment as the RPF DG. The move to not send Yadava’s service record was primarily aimed at ensuring that three IPS officers serving in the state — Muhammad Akil, RC Mishra and Shatrujeet Kapur — gets empanelled on the basis of seniority, merit and experience by the commission. If Yadava was to figure in the panel of three, it would have meant that Kapur would have been left out.
