Dinkar Gupta stays as Punjab Police chief

Chandigarh, February 7

In a reprieve for Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta, the Supreme Court today did not give any immediate relief to DGP hopeful Mohammad Mustafa, according to a statement issued by the CMO.

Available information suggests Mustafa’s plea in the matter was dismissed as withdrawn after the state of Punjab submitted that it was ready to argue the matter before the Punjab and Haryana High Court and would not seek any adjournment when the matter came up for hearing on February 26.

The High Court had in its order of January 21, 2020, stayed the CAT ruling, quashing Gupta’s appointment as DGP. The Congress government had selected Gupta from a panel of names sent by the UPSC to the state, the official statement read.

With the apex court declining to interfere in the SLP against the interim stay granted by the HC, Mustafa’s counsel PS Patwalia chose to withdraw the petition. The case, as such, will come up before the HC on February 26 as scheduled. The SC Bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Abdul Nazeer said the HC order was an interim order and the matter was yet to be heard on February 26. “We request the HC to expedite the hearing of the matter.” Mustafa had questioned the “long date” given by the HC for hearing the appeal against the CAT order. He said he was to retire in February 2021 and as per the SC judgment in Prakash Singh case, the remaining tenure of a candidate to be selected as DGP should be a minimum six months. — TNS