SC declines to interfere in SLP filed by Punjab IPS officer Mustafa against HC order

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to interfere in a Special Leave Petition (SLP) against the Punjab and Haryana High Court's interim stay on a CAT order setting aside the appointment of senior IPS officer Dinkar Gupta as the state police chief, the office of the Punjab Advocate General said here.

The top court has declined to grant relief to IPS officer Mohammad Mustafa, the Punjab AG's office said in a statement.

Mustafa had filed an SLP against the January 21 high court order that had stayed the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) verdict.

With the apex court declining to interfere in the SLP against the interim stay granted by the high court, Mustafa's counsel, P S Patwalia, chose to withdraw the petition, paving the way for the high court to hear the matter on February 26 as scheduled, the statement said.

Earlier, in response to arguments by Patwalia, a bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Abul Nazeer had pointed out that the high court order was an interim order and the matter was to be heard on February 26.

Refuting the contention made by the counsel appearing for Mustafa that the state of Punjab would try and delay the matter, Attorney General for India K K Venugopal and Advocate General of Punjab Atul Nanda said the state of Punjab would contest the matter and argue it before the high court, the statement added.

In his plea, Mustafa had mainly questioned the "long date" given by the high court for hearing the appeal against the CAT order.

His plea had emphasised on the fact that he is due to retire in February 2021, and as per the SC judgment in the Prakash Singh case, a candidate to be selected as a DGP should have a minimum residual tenure of six months and not be on the verge of retirement.

"If the dispute is allowed to go on and the selection of the petitioner is not considered latest by August 2020, as six months' tenure is necessary for being considered for the post of DGP, then the petitioner will be left out of the entire selection process even after the petitioner has succeeded before the tribunal," the SLP further stated.

On January 17, the CAT had set aside the appointment of Gupta as the state police chief which came as a big blow to the Congress-led Punjab government.

A two-member bench of CAT chairman L Narsimha Reddy and M Jamshed had pronounced the order on an appeal by senior IPS officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya, who had challenged Gupta's appointment on the grounds that they were "ignored" despite being senior to Gupta.

On January 21, the high court granted a stay on the operation of the CAT order.

The police officers had also opposed the contention of the empanelment committee, which had sent a report to the UPSC, saying the officers lacked experience in core policing areas.

While Mustafa is a 1985-batch officer, Chattopadhyaya is from the 1986-batch. Gupta is a 1987-batch officer.

Gupta was appointed the DGP in 2019. He superseded five senior officers, including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya.

In his previous stint, Gupta was posted as the Director General of Police (Intelligence) of Punjab.