Nagaland Govt directed to ‘formally’ appoint Rupin Sharma as State DGP

Morung Express News
Dimapur | January 23

The Supreme Court, on January 23, directed the Nagaland Government to pass orders within a week regarding the appointment of Rupin Sharma, the officer duly empanelled by Union Public Service Commission, for appointment as the Director General of Police (DGP) of the state.

Sharma, a 1992-batch IPS officer of Nagaland cadre, is currently the DG (Prisons & HGCD & SDRF) and he was (re)assigned to hold the charge of the DGP on January 7, after the previous incumbent T John Longkumer, handed over his resignation on January 2.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice JB Pardiwala also refused to consider the plea of the Nagaland government that the UPSC be asked to relax the 30 years service criteria rule to 25 years for IPS officers for being empanelled in the UPSC list of three for appointment as the state police chief, the PTI news agency reported. 

The counsel for UPSC and the senior counsel for State of Nagaland had earlier submitted to the Court that on December 15, the UPSC had forwarded a panel consisting of a solitary name - Sharma for appointment as the Nagaland DGP.

Another candidate, A Sunil Achaya, fulfils the conditions of eligibility but was not empanelled as he was on central deputation and expressed his unwillingness to take up the post.

Accordingly, during last hearing on January 9, the Apex court had sought some clarifications from the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) including “whether the concurrence of the officer is necessary before empanelling the officer for appointment as DGP of the State where the officer is on central deputation.’

In this regard, the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) representing the Union, clarified on January 23 that “there was no rule that the concurrence of the officer ought to be taken for being empanelled for appointment as DGP,” according to legal news portal LiveLaw. 

However, the ASG apprised that the concerned officer is assigned to a posting as Additional Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat and given the nature of the posting it would not be possible to relieve him for the empanelment. 

During Monday’s hearing, the Bench noted that though the directions in Prakash Singh provide that the State shall appoint to the post of DGP from a panel of 3 senior most officers, it clarified that the same would not imply that the State would be at liberty to bypass the requirements of the decision if there are less than 3 officers in the panel, the report said. 

 The Counsel for the State of Nagaland also asked the UPSC to relax the criterion of minimum years of service for being considered for empanelment so that the pool of officers from where the 3-member panel is increased, but the UPSC countered that it is not open to the State to insist on the relaxation of mandatory criterion, it added. 

Considering the rival contentions, the Bench refused to grant relaxation of the requirement of 30 years of service to be eligible for being empanelled.

Moreover, according to the PTI report, the Bench noted that Sharma has “already been appointed and this being the position, we are not issuing directions mandating the UPSC to relax the eligibility criteria from 30 years to 25 years,” the bench said.

“The court cannot be unmindful of the fact that any mandate for relaxation of eligibility would result in a situation” where an officer, who is junior by five years, can become the DGP, it said, directing the Nagaland government to pass consequential orders within one week.

The hearing is related to the apex court judgement in Prakash Singh & Others versus the Union of India &Others (2006) and an application was filed by the Nagaland Law Students' Federation citing violation of guidelines provided in judgement.