The Supreme Court dismissed an application filed by the West Bengal government seeking permission of the court to appoint its DGP without involving the UPSC.
“This is an abuse of the process of law. You cannot do this”, said the Bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna.
In a landmark judgment in 2006, the Supreme Court had mandated that the state DGPs can not be appointed without the involvement of the Union Public Service Commission. The state is mandated to select its DGP from the list of three names suggested by the UPSC.
The court further stated “Why are you wasting so much time in these applications? Our pain is there are petitions which should not be filed and what will happen when states start doing this?"
In 2018, the Supreme Court reiterated its position about involvement of the UPSC in the selection process of the DGP. It had also put in abeyance any direction passed by the state or central government to bypass the 2006 Supreme Court judgment.
In 2019, the Punjab government had also moved the Supreme Court with a similar application but it was dismissed by the court.
