High Court upholds appointment of Punjab DGP Dinkar Gupta

Chandigarh, Nov 6 (IANS) In a major reprieve to Punjab Director General of Police (DGP) Dinkar Gupta, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday upheld his appointment.

The court allowed an appeal by the state against Central Administrative Tribunal's (CAT) orders.

The CAT on January 17 set aside the appointment of Gupta as it allowed the application challenging his appointment by his seniors in service -- Siddharth Chattopadhyay and Mohammad Mustafa.

Reacting to the development, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had said Gupta would continue to be the DGP.

The CAT had asked the state government to make the appointment as per the procedure laid out by the Supreme Court within four weeks.

A 1987 batch Indian Police Services (IPS) officer, Gupta had superseded five senior officers to be named the state police chief on February 7, 2019.

Mustafa and Chattopadhyay had challenged the government's decision in the tribunal, saying they were ignored for the post despite fulfilling the criterion.

Besides them, the other officers are Hardeep Dhillon, Jasminder Singh and Samant Goel.