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 later as DGP.
The court had reserved judgement in the case on January 8.
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 Gupta superseded five senior officers, including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya.
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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 had said.
Supreme Court lawyer Nirdesh Gupta represented Punjab Government before the CAT bench, while Puneet Bali represented Dinkar Gupta. Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya were represented by advocates Rajiv Atma Ram and PS Patwalia. Additional Advocate General Anu Chatrath appeared for UPSC.
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