The Punjab government on Monday approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had set aside the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as the DGP.
A division Bench of justices Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sidhu allowed the hearing of the matter on Tuesday. Additional advocate general Rameeza Hakim appeared for the State government, while senior advocate Puneet Bali appeared for the DGP.
Last week, the CAT had set aside the appointment following an appeal filed by two IPS officers — Mohammad Mustafa and Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya. Both officers had separately moved the Tribunal last year, seeking quashing of his appointment.
In their plea, the officers had submitted that they were ignored for the post though they were senior to Mr. Gupta and had outstanding service records.
The two-member Bench of Justice L.Narasimha Reddy, Chairman of CAT, and Mohd. Jamshed directed the UPSC and the empanelment committee to form a new panel of three senior-most officers for the appointment within four weeks.
Mr. Mustafa is a 1985 batch officer and Mr. Chattopadhyaya a 1986-batch officer while Mr. Gupta is a 1987 batch officer. Mr. Gupta was appointed the DGP in 2019.
