Central Administrative Tribunal orders AP to appoint new DGP

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad,Jan. 28: The Central Administrative Tribunal on Thursday set aside as illegal and arbitrary the appointment of Mr R.R. Girish Kumar as the director-general of police of the state and directed the government to appoint a new DGP within two weeks.

This has landed the government in a fix since it wants to retain Mr Kumar as chief of the police force.

It is learnt that the government is likely to take up the selection process afresh as suggested by the CAT and “choose” Mr Kumar as DGP again by citing lack of specific Central guidelines to select the head of the police force.
Alternatively, it may approach the High Court.

The CAT bench comprising Justice P. Lakshman Reddy and Mr R. Santhanam, gave this directive while dealing with petitions filed by IPS officers Mr A. K. Mohanty and Mr S.S.P. Yadav, former DGPs who were transferred to low payscale posts.

The CAT bench observed that Mr Mohanty and Mr Yadav was entitled to the apex scale even after their transfer.

Mr Girish Kumar was eligible to apex scale only from December 10, 2009, when the Centre sanctioned the fifth post of DGP. It directed the government to pay amounts due to senior IPS officers.

Mr Yadav approached the CAT in October 2009 challenging the appointment of Mr Girish, a 1976-batch IPS officer, as the DGP.

On Mr Mohanty, the CAT said that since his appointment covered only the election period, he could not claim benefits of SC directions regarding selection and tenure of the DGP.

These directives give a new twist to the career graphs of Mr Girish and Mr Yadav, both of who had stirred up controversy through their comments and actions.

Reacting to the CAT order, Mr Kumar said, “The government will take a decision as per the directions given by the CAT.”

The DGP’s adversaries point out that absence of specific guidelines may not be of much help to him since even if one assesses the merit of an officer by the medals he received for outstanding service, Mr Girish would not score.

At the same time, government sources made light of the CAT reference to the SC order on retaining officers in the top post for a minimum of two years by pointing out that no state had agreed to implement it.