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The centre today submitted an affidavit before the Delhi High Court defending the appointment of former Director General of Border Security Force (BSF) as Commissioner of Police, Delhi.

The centre informed the court that Rakesh Asthana was made the Commissioner of Police Delhi by the Central Government "in public interest."

It has been submitted that the prime consideration for the same was that New Delhi as the capital of the country has been witnessing diverse and extremely challenging situations of public order/law and order situation/policing issues which not only had national security implications but also international/cross border implications.

"As such, a compelling need was felt by the Central Government to appoint a person as a head of the police force of Delhi, who had diverse and vast experience of heading a large police force in a large State having diverse political as well as public order problem/experience of working and supervising Central Investigating Agency(s) as well as para-military forces", the centre stated.

The affidavit was filed in a plea challenging the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as Commissioner of Police, Delhi.

It has futher been submitted that to achieve the above purpose, a search was done in AGMUT  Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, which is the IPS cadre for GNCT (Government of National Capital Territory).

"However, since AGMUT cadre was a cadre comprising of Union Territory and small north-eastern states, it was felt that requisite experience of working and supervising the central investigating agency/para-military force and police force of a large state having diverse political and law and order problem was lacking in the present pool of available officers and hence in public interest, a decision was made by the Central Government to have an officer who had experience in all the above fields to supervise Delhi Police force and to provide effective policing on the recent law and order situation which arose in the National Capital Territory of Delhi."

The centre in its affidavit has also sought for dismissal of the PIL on the ground that a PIL is not admissible in a service matter.

Urging the court to dismiss the main petition and the intervention application filed by centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), the centre has submitted that "the present petition is an abuse of process of law and manifestly an outcome of some personal vendetta against the incumbent police commissioner entertained by the petitioner as well as the intervener."

The division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh had in the previous hearing issued notice on the plea and also allowed the intervention application of Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) alleging that the main petition is a copy paste of CPIL’s plea in the Supreme Court.

The petition filed by one Sadre Alam seeks quashing of the order/communication dated Jul 27 of the Appointment Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) granting inter-cadre deputation and extension of service to Asthana.

Filed through Adv. BS Bagga, the petition says that the impugned orders are in clear and blatant breach of the directions passed by the Supreme Court of India in Prakash Singh case as Asthana did not have a minimum residual tenure of six months at the time of his appointment as Commissioner of Police since he was to retire within 4 days. 

Further, no Union Public Services Commission (UPSC) panel was formed for the appointment of the Delhi Police Commissioner and the criteria of having a minimum tenure of two years has been ignored.

The petitioner has submitted that “the post of Commissioner of Police in Delhi is akin to the post of DGP of a State and he is the Head of Police Force for the NCT of Delhi and therefore, the directions concerning the appointment to the post of DGP passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Prakash Singh case (supra) had to be followed by the Central Government while making the impugned appointment. However, the same have been given a complete go-by the Central Government”.

The petition thus seeks a direction to the Union Government to initiate fresh steps for appointing the Commissioner of Police, Delhi, strictly in accordance with the directions issued by the  Supreme Court of India in the Prakash Singh case viz., (2006) 8 SCC 1,(2019) 4 SCC 13and (2019) 4 SCC 1 of an officer of the AGMUT cadre.

Case Title: Sadre Alam vs UOI