Chandigarh: The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday asked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to be ready with the record pertaining to the selection of Punjab DGP so that the court can examine it, if needed.

Division bench headed by Justice Jaswant Singh ordered this after going through arguments submitted by UPSC during the hearing of the case pertaining to appointment of Punjab DGP. UPSC has contended that guidelines could be challenged only when the body framing it lacked authority and when it was unreasonable.

“The commission's authority to issue the guidelines regarding selection of DGPs was undisputed and as far as its reasonableness was concerned, it was consistent with the law and did not violate any known principle of service jurisprudence,” counsel for UPSC argued.

Further asserting that UPSC had no axe to grind in the matter, UPSC counsel Aman Lekhi claimed that recommendations by the commission in the case were in consonance with apex court’s judgement in the Prakash Singh case.

During the hearing of the case, the UPSC counsel went on to draw parallels between the selection committee and the meeting of collegium to select judges. However, the bench refused to accept the contentions observing that the collegium meetings were different because, as they are held to make appointment for constitutional posts and not selection posts.

The arguments in the case would continue on the next date which has been set at for March 17.

On January 17, the Chandigarh bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal had quashed the appointment of Dinkar Gupta as Punjab DGP observing that the entire process followed in his appointment went against provisions outlined by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case. The order was passed by CAT on another senior Punjab IPS officer Mohammad Mustafa’s application.

Aggrieved from these orders, the Punjab government and Dinkar Gupta had approached the Punjab and Haryana high court. Hearing their plea, a division bench of the HC on January 21 had stayed the CAT order.

