Hyderabad:
The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has set aside the appointment of Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) V. Dinesh Reddy. While setting aside the appointment of Mr Reddy, the Hyderabad bench of CAT has directed the AP government to send a new list of senior most IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) within a week after which the state government can appoint a new DGP, IPS officer Gautam Kumar's counsel Jonnalagadda Sudhir said. "The CAT has directed to complete the process of appointing a new DGP within three weeks," he added.
IPS officer and home secretary Gautam Kumar had challenged Mr Reddy's appointment to the top post on 30 June 2011, saying the criterion of merit and seniority prescribed by the central government in such an appointment was violated. The petitioner had said that the AP government violated the Supreme Court order in Prakash Singh case wherein it had said that the state government should send a list of three senior-most IPS officers to the UPSC for the selection of the DGP.
"The appointment of Dinesh Reddy as the Head of Police Force (HoPF) by the AP government is against the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case. Mr Reddy's appointment should be set aside and new appointment should be made in accordance with law," Mr Kumar had said in his petition
Last year, the CAT set aside the appointment of Aravind Rao to the top post on the basis of the same argument of Mr Kumar.
Back then too, he had stated that he (Mr Kumar) along with another IPS officer K R.Nandan had been superseded and Mr Rao appointed instead. But the state government approached the AP High Court and obtained a stay on the CAT verdict, thereby allowing Mr Rao to continue as the DGP who retired on June 30 last year, after which Dinesh Reddy took over as the new DGP.
The Andhra Pradesh government in their defence has said they wanted a DGP with a longer tenure and at the time of his appointment Dinesh Reddy had over two years left in service.