The incumbent DGP, Manoj Yadava’s two-year tenure had already ended. The Union Home Ministry on March 2 had extended his tenure till February 20, 2022 or till further orders, whichever is earlier. (Express photo by Jaipal Singh) The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), which held its meeting in New Delhi Thursday, finalised a panel of three IPS officers from Haryana and sent it back to the state. Haryana will now select one from the three as its next police chief. The selected names include P K Agrawal (1988 batch), Mohammad Akil and R C Mishra (1989 batch).
The state government had sent names of eight IPS officers, including incumbent DGP Manoj Yadava. Inclusion of Yadava’s name in the panel was barely a procedural formality, considering his seniority. UPSC had to pick a panel of three officers out of the remaining seven.
Besides the top three, the four others were Shatrujeet Kapoor and Desh Raj Singh (1990 batch), Alok Roy and Sanjeev Kumar Jain (1991 batch).
UPSC will now send the names to the state government and it shall be the prerogative of the state government to pick either of the three officers as the next state police chief.
Sources said P K Agrawal, who is also the senior-most in the panel, is most likely to be appointed as the next Haryana Director General of Police.
The incumbent DGP, Manoj Yadava’s two-year tenure had already ended. The Union Home Ministry on March 2 had extended his tenure till February 20, 2022 or till further orders, whichever is earlier. Yadava, the 1988 batch IPS officer is left with four years of service before he attains superannuation.
Yadava had been posted as state police chief in Haryana since February 21, 2019. Citing personal reasons and career prospects, on June 22, he wrote to Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajiv Arora seeking repatriation to his parent cadre of Intelligence Bureau. Yadava’s request was forwarded to Home Minister Anil Vij, who “accepted” it and asked the Home department to finalise the process of his replacement by sending a panel of suitable officers to UPSC.
According to the landmark directions of the Supreme Court in former Uttar Pradesh DGP Prakash Singh’s case in 2006, a state police chief is selected by the state government from among the three senior-most officers of the police department who have been empanelled for promotion to the rank of DGP on the basis of their length of service, good record and range of experience for heading the police force.
Once selected, the officer should have a minimum of two years of tenure left irrespective of his date of superannuation.
Referring to the same judgement, Supreme Court in March 2019, had also clarified that UPSC’s recommendation to the post of DGP and preparation of panel should be done purely on the basis of merit and comprising officers who have at least six months of service left.
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