Supreme Court clarifies DGP appointment rules: Follow state law or Prakash Singh guidelines

Key facts

• The Supreme Court of India (SC) clarified that states with a specific law for appointing Directors General of Police (DGPs) must follow that legislation.
• States without such a law must adhere to the guidelines laid down in the Prakash Singh vs Union of India case on police reforms.
• A bench headed by Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M. Pancholi, closed contempt proceedings against Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana after noting the states had sent proposals to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for DGP appointments.
• Under the Prakash Singh judgment (2006), states send a list of eligible senior IPS officers to the UPSC, which evaluates their service records and prepares a panel of three suitable candidates, from whom the state government appoints one as DGP.
• The court directed that the selected DGP should normally be given a minimum fixed tenure of two years.
• Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh have enacted their own laws governing the appointment of DGPs.
• Jharkhand’s law provides that the selection of the police chief is carried out by a committee headed by a retired High Court judge.
• The court sought responses from the governments of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand within two weeks regarding the status of their DGP appointments.