Jharkhand should 'revisit' DGP appointment rules, says Supreme Court

File photo: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday said the Jharkhand's DGP appointment process prima facie violated its Prakash Singh judgement, which mandated consideration of officers with six months or more residual tenure for the top police post, reports Dhananjay Mahapatra.

It issued a notice to Tadasha Singh, who was appointed to the post a day before her retirement.On an application filed by Centre alleging the state's DGP appointment regulation overreached the court's judgement, a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana said, "In the event of the regulation being annulled, the appointment of Tadasha Mishra... would be required to be set aside. Therefore, we deem it appropriate to accord her one opportunity of being heard, for which Jharkhand govt is directed to serve notice on her to enable her to appear.

.."SC further said Jharkhand should "revisit" Selection and Appointment of DGP (Head of Police Force) Regulations, 2025, adding that if the state wanted to defend the regulation, it could file a counter-affidavit.Centre, through SG Tushar Mehta, said the regulation was amended in 2025 to do away with the residual tenure requirement and two DGP appointments were made though they had days left for retirement.Jharkhand, through senior advocate Kapil Sibal, took umbrage at Centre's selective targeting when many states had provisions that militate against the Prakash Singh judgement's mandate.