The Bombay High Court on Monday asked why the Maharashtra government cannot accept the recommendations of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in appointing a permanent Director General of Police (DGP).
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M.S. Karnik was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Datta Mane seeking direction to the government to appoint a permanent DGP as per the UPSC recommendation.
The PIL sought the government to place records in connection with the “inordinate delay” in not following the Supreme Court’s directions which had said the appointment of a permanent DGP should be made from a list of three officers recommended by the UPSC. Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the UPSC, said the panel had recommended names of Hemant Nagrale, Rajnish Seth, Venkatesan and acting DGP Sanjay Pandey’s name was not in the list of recommendations.
The court said, “We find that there was a meeting of the panel in November 2021 and the then Chief Secretary [Sitaram Kunte] was party to the committee and if he had then agreed to the three recommendations, can he later on say the Commission was not right in discarding certain names of an aspirant?”
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said there cannot be any doubt that the post will be filled on a permanent basis.
The court then said it was not proper on the part of the then Chief Secretary to say the Commission had erred one week after signing the papers. The State government cannot now say its recommendations can be considered by the UPSC.
