The Punjab government on Monday approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court against the order of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) that had set aside the appointment of Punjab’s Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta from the top post.
A Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Sharma and Harinder Singh Sidhu allowed the hearing of the matter on Tuesday. While Additional Advocate General Rameeza Hakim appeared on behalf of the State government, senior advocate Puneet Bali moved the High Court on behalf of the DGP against the order.
Last week, the CAT had set aside the appointment of Mr. Gupta as Punjab DGP. The CAT’s decision came on an appeal filed by two IPS officers, Mohammad Mustafa and Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya. Both officers had separately moved the tribunal last year challenging Mr. Gupta’s appointment and seeking quashing of his appointment.
In their plea the officers had submitted that they were ignored for the post even though they were senior to Mr. Gupta. Also that they had an outstanding service records, the plea added.
New panel
The two-member Bench of Justices L. Narasimha Reddy who is the Chairman of CAT, and Mohd. Jamshed, while pronouncing the order, directed the UPSC and the empanelment committee to form a new panel of three senior-most officers for appointment to the post of DGP 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 DGP in 2019.
