The Supreme Court of India has served a notice of contempt to the government of Nagaland over appointment of the incumbent director general of police (DGP), Nagaland, TJ Longkumer.

According to information, a group of people by the name ‘Concerned People Of Nagaland ’ had filed a petition before the apex court alleging that the government of Nagaland had “illegally removed” Rupin Sharma, Longkumer’s predecessor, as the DGP of Nagaland in 2018.

In a court document, dated February 28, 2019 which has been made available to the local media on Thursday, the Supreme Court has directed the Nagaland government to reply to the notice within six weeks.

It has observed that the Nagaland government did not follow the apex court’s directive to prepare a panel of senior IPS officers for appointment of the state DGP.

In the month of August last year, when the group had served a legal notice to the Nagaland government, the deputy chief minister of Nagaland, Y Patton, who is also holding the home portfolio, had said the petitioner has no locus standi as the state government had followed ‘due procedures’ in appointing Longkumer as the DGP who is senior to his predecessor.

Senior IPS officer Taliakhum John Longkumer had taken charge as the new DGP of Nagaland on June 27, 2018.

Longkumer is an IPS officer of 1991 batch while his predecessor Rupin Sharma is an IPS officer of 1992 batch.

Through an order issued on June 20, 2018 by Nagaland home commissioner R Ramakrishnan, Rupin Sharma was kept on compulsory wait and was asked to hand over the charge to IPS officer Renchamo P Kikon, who took additional charge as the DGP before Longkumer’s appointment as the Nagaland police chief.