Abhinav Kumar, the current Director General of Police (DGP) in Uttarakhand, has raised concerns over his exclusion from the list of candidates submitted to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the state’s DGP position. Kumar, a senior IPS officer, claims that the decision contradicts a 2014 Uttarakhand High Court stay order, which has supported his position in the state.
Kumar, who has served in Uttarakhand for 24 years, originally belonged to the Uttar Pradesh cadre but opted for the newly formed Uttarakhand cadre in 2000. Despite this, the UPSC panel excluded his name in favor of officers from the 1995 and 1997 batches, overlooking Kumar, who belongs to the 1996 batch.
In a formal representation to the state’s Chief Secretary, Radha Raturi, Kumar emphasized that the Chief Secretary had recorded a dissenting note during the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meeting on September 30, where the panel was finalized. Kumar has now requested that the state government forward his representation to UPSC for reconsideration, following legal advice.
Kumar, who has received all his promotions in Uttarakhand, including his appointment as acting DGP in November 2023, expressed confidence that UPSC will take the state’s dissent and his appeal into account. He has also urged the Ministry of Home Affairs to intervene and call for a review of the panel, seeking fair reconsideration of his exclusion.
