‘Can IPS officer at Centre refuse state DGP post?’

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday asked the MHA to specify whether a senior state cadre IPS officer, on deputation to the Centre, could express unwillingness to be included in a panel of names suggested by the UPSC for the post of that state’s DGP.
This situation arose as the Nagaland government advocate general K N Balgopal took exception to the UPSC sending only the name of 1992-batch IPS officer Rupin Sharma for filling the post of DGP. The SC’s ‘Prakash Singh judgment’ mandates preparation of a panel of three names from which the state would choose its DGP.
UPSC counsel Naresh Kaushik informed the court that the senior-most IPS officer from Nagaland, Sunil Achaya, had expressed his unwillingness to return to the state cadre and no other officer met the eligibility criteria of 30 years’ experience. This warranted sending the only other eligible candidate Rupin Sharma’s name, he said. Achaya, a 1991 IPS officer, is at present posted as joint director in Cabinet Secretariat (R&AW).
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha said the concerned officer’s unwillingness is immaterial as he is duty bound to go back to his parent cadre when his services were needed there. However, Kaushik said that it has been a tradition not to empanel an officer if he was unwilling to go back to his parent cadre state.
Kaushik also said that the MHA has in principle agreed with UPSC’s suggestion to reduce the eligibility experience from 30 years to 25 years for north-eastern states as well as Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand as it is difficult to find many IPS officers of state cadre with 30 years’ experience.
The bench asked the MHA to file an affidavit within a week "indicating whether concurrence of a state cadre officer, on deputation to the central government, was necessary for his empanelment for the post of DGP in the parent cadre state and if so, under which Rule?"
It also asked the home ministry to clarify whether Achaya could be relieved of the post he held on deputation and whether his name could be included in the panel as not many officers with required experience were available in Nagaland.
It asked MHA to place on record its letter, which UPSC claimed, conveyed in principle agreement of the ministry to relax the required experience criteria from 30 years to 25 years in the specified states. It posted the matter for further hearing on January 23.