Punjab and Haryana High Court upholds appointment of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta

Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, November 6

Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday upheld the appointment of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta.

The court allowed an appeal by the state of Punjab against CAT orders.

On January 17, the CAT had set aside the appointment of Gupta as the state police chief that had come as a big blow to the Congress-led Punjab government.

A two-member bench of CAT chairman L Narsimha Reddy and M Jamshed had pronounced the order on an appeal by senior IPS officers Mohammad Mustafa and Siddhharth Chattopadhyaya, who had challenged Gupta''s appointment on the grounds that they were "ignored" despite being senior to Gupta.

The police officers also opposed the contention of the empanelment committee, which had sent a report to the UPSC, saying the officers lacked experience in core policing areas.

While Mustafa is a 1985-batch officer, Chattopadhyaya is a 1986-batch officer. Gupta is a 1987-batch officer.

Gupta was appointed the DGP in 2019. He superseded five senior officers, including Mustafa and Chattopadhyaya.

In his previous stint, Gupta was posted as the director-general of police, (intelligence) Punjab. —with PTI