Supreme Court Issues Notice In Plea Challenging Appointment Of SK Singhal As Bihar DGP

The Supreme Court of India on Monday issued notice in a PIL filed challenging the appointment of Sanjeev Kumar Singhal as the Director General of Police by the State of Bihar.

A Bench comprising the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hima Kohli issued the direction after considering the submissions made by Senior Advocate Jay Salva appearing for the petitioner, who is a resident of the State of Bihar. 

The Bench asked the Senior Counsel as to why they haven't moved the High Court.

Senior Counsel Salva submitted that two similar petitions with regard to two other States are already pending before the Supreme Court.

"This court has repeatedly held that dictum held in Prakash Singh case should be followed. Contempt notice has been issued in case of Jharkhand DGP appointment and writ petition with regard to Delhi (plea challenging appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Delhi Police Commissioner) was entertained" Mr Salva submitted

The present writ petition filed through Advocate Amrita Kumari has submitted that the the procedure for appointment of Director General of Police was enumerated by Supreme Court in its judgement passed in Prakash Singh Versus Union of India and Ors (2006).

However, it has been argued that the State of Bihar appointed the S.K Singhal as Director general of Police in complete violation of the Prakash Singh judgment.

It has been submitted that the State of Bihar gave additional power to the Mr Singhal as Director General of Police through Notification after sudden VRS by Mr. Gupteshwar Pandey, the earlier Director General of Police.

Further, in January last year, the tenure of Director General of Police i.e. Respondent no. 3 was fixed for two year ending in the month of December 2022.

The PIL has pointed put that in terms of the appointment of the DGP which was done through three notifications from September 2020 to January 2021, the person who's superannuation was in August 2021 will now retire in December 2022.  Further, he is going to enjoy is a total term of two years and three months as DGP and after retirement he will enjoy the services for more than one year four months.

Case Title: Narendra Kumar Dhiraj vs State of Bihar & Ors, WP (C) 1375/2021

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