Chandigarh, January 17, 2020: A specially constituted two-member Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) bench, consisting of CAT chairman L Narsimha Reddy and M Jamshed, today accepted DGP Mohammad Mustafa’s plea against promotion and appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab Director General of Police and quashed the appointment of the latter as DGP.
CAT also directed Union Public Service Commission and Empanelment Committee for preparation of panel for appointment to the post of Director General of Police to prepare a panel of three senior-most officers, strictly in accordance with the judgment of Supreme Court.
CAT added that they should also address the issue as to the size of the list, i.e., zone of consideration, for this purpose and shall not take into account, any factors other than those mentioned by the Supreme Court in the case of Prakash Singh & others v. Union of India & others, (2006) 8 SCC 1.
It directed that the exercise in this behalf shall be completed within four weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this judgment.
When asked by mediapersons about his reaction to CAT quashing Gupta’s appointment as DGP, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder said: “This is the dispute between the decision of the UPSC and CAT. As far as we are concerned, our DGP is Dinkar Gupta and he stays there.”
The court had reserved judgement in the case on January 8.
Click to read full judgment :
1985-batch officer Mustafa and 1986-batch officer DGP Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya had challenged the appointment of Gupta as DGP in CAT after both were ignored by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) panel for the appointment as the state's DGP, despite fulfilling criteria.
Gupta, a 1987-batch officer was appointed DGP in 2018 after his name was empaneled by UPSC for the post. Gupta superseded five senior officers, including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya.
Mustafa said Gupta’s appointment was made on malafide grounds and he (Mustafa) was more eligible for the post as, according to Supreme Court criteria, he was senior, had a very good service record and more experience.
Mustafa said UPSC was kept in the dark while it recommended officers for the top post because of vested interests.
“UPSC came up with no plausible reasons why it didn’t recommend senior officers,” Mustafa said.