Dinesh choice as DGP is ‘illegal’, set aside by CAT

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The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday set aside the appointment of Mr V. Dinesh Reddy as director-general of police (head of police force) by declaring that his appointment was not legally sustainable and in violation of the Supreme Court’s directions in a previous case.

The state government has decided to challenge the ruling in the AP High Court. A bench comprising M. Kanthaiah and Ranbir Singh allowed an application by principal secretary, home, P. Gautam Kumar challenging the appointment of Mr Dinesh Reddy. Delivering the verdict, Mr Kanthaiah directed the state government to start the process of appointment of a new DGP.

The government was directed to forward the names of all eligible officers in the cadre of higher annual grade plus scale, along with their service records, to the Union Public Service Commission with necessary requisition for preparing a panel within a week. The panel should be in accordance with the directions of Prakash Singh’s case — wherein the Supreme Court had given directions for appointments.

The bench asked the UPSC to short-list names and prepare a panel and sent it back to the state government within a week. After receiving the short-list, the state government will have to appoint the new DGP within seven days.

DGP to continue till alternative is arranged
The Hyderabad bench of the Central Administr-ative Tribunal permitted the state government to continue with V. Dinesh Reddy as the director general of police till completion of the selection process. Mr Gautam Kumar had contended that Mr Dinesh Reddy was appointed by a constituted selection committee at state level, which was in violation of not only IPS Cadre Rules but also of directions of the apex court in Prakash Singh's case.

He had said that the government had not referred the list of eligible officers to the Union Public Service Commission for empanelment of selection to the DGP's post. Former director general of the Border Security Force Prakash Singh had filed a public interest litigation seeking reforms in the Indian Police system. His efforts had led to a landmark judgement of the SC that set guidelines for the selection of heads of the police forces of states in India.