SC junks pleas against appointment of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta
Darpan News Desk IANS, 16 Nov, 2021 12:49 PM
New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Tuesday junked petitions against the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, which upheld the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab Director General of Police.
A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, Sanjiv Khanna and B.R. Gavai dismissed the petitions filed by IPS officers Siddharth Chattopadhyay and Mohammad Mustafa, challenging February 7, 2019, order appointing Gupta as the Punjab DGP.
The top court had reserved the order in the matter in September this year. The detailed judgment in the matter is expected to be uploaded on the top court's website later in the day.
Additional Solicitor General Aman Lekhi, representing the Union Public Service Commission had submitted that draft guidelines, 2009 were legal, binding and in conformity with the Prakash Singh judgment.
The counsel, representing Chattopadhyay, had argued that his client was considered unfit, since Suresh Arora, the then DGP being the ex officio member of the empanelment committee for the selection of the post of DGP had reason to be biased against him. Mustafa's counsel had argued that the appointment process for Gupta was tailor-made.
After the meeting of Rahul Gandhi with Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and T.S. Singh Deo, it is widely expected that the state could see a minor portfolio reshuffle. Singh Deo may be given more importance in the cabinet and it's likely he may be allotted a portfolio soon. Currently he holds the health portfolio.
Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said he will invite Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Punjab Governor V.P. Badnore and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as guests at the special session.
Chidambaram was addressing a press conference at the fag-end of his two-day visit to the state in the capacity as the All India Congress Committee's senior observer in charge of Goa ahead of the 2022 state assembly polls.
Punjab annually generates 20 million tonnes of paddy straw and this is normally set on fire to quickly clear the fields for the next crop, resulting in choking of the National Capital Region (NCR) in October and November.
Priyanka's remarks came after farmers on Tuesday evening vacated the railway tracks and highways in Punjab after the Amarinder Singh government accepted the demands of the sugarcane farmers.
The 'rebel' legislators reached Dehradun in the morning to apprise Rawat about the mood of the public against the Amarinder Singh-led government in the state. They, among 20-odd party legislators, have been demanding replacement of Amarinder Singh as he failed to fulfill the 2017 poll promises.
