NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked Union Public Service Commission to defer the selection of a panel of three officers from which the Odisha govt was to choose the successor of present DGP Y B Khurania, who retires on Aug 16.Appearing for applicant Jayant Das, senior advocate P Chidambaram told a bench of CJI Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana that a certain ADGP was hurriedly promoted to DGP rank and included in the panel of names sent by Odisha govt to UPSC, which was against the DGP selection procedure laid down by SC in the two decade-old Prakash Singh judgement.When amicus curiae and senior advocate Raju Ramachandran said the matter required consideration, Odisha advocate general Pitambara Acharya said the state had followed Prakash Singh guidelines scrupulously and sent names of 11 DGP-rank police officers to UPSC for preparation of a panel of three-most suitable officers.“The complainant has seven criminal cases pending against him and is a habitual offender. He might have a certain axe to grind against some officers. There is no breach of any procedure. We will present a clear picture before court,” Acharya said.
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CJI Kant pointed out that none of the aggrieved officers who might have been overlooked in the choice of 11 empaneled names have complained. UPSC, through senior advocate Hrishikesh Baruah, informed the court that the selection authority was meeting on Thursday itself. But the bench said it should not finalise the panel.Baruah then said UPSC would postpone the meeting till next date of hearing. SC asked Odisha govt to file its response to the application and posted the matter for hearing on Aug 18. This means Odisha would have to either ask Khurania to continue as DGP till further orders or appoint an ad hoc DGP till the matter gets decided by SC.On Sept 22, 2006, SC laid down guidelines for selection of DGPs in states to insulate them from political influence and had given them a tenure of two years. For last two decades, it has been supervising the appointment process for DGPs and entertaining applications which point out irregularities or illegalities in that process.
