Supreme Court directs Nagaland government to appoint IPS officer Rupin Sharma as state’s new DGP

The Supreme Court on January 24 directed the Nagaland government to complete the procedure of appointment of senior IPS officer Rupin Sharma as the new Director General of Police (DGP) of the state.

The apex court has allotted the state government one week’s time for completion of the appointment procedure.

The Nagaland government's request that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) be asked to relax the 30 years of service criteria rule for IPS officers to 25 years in order for them to be appointed to the UPSC list of three was turned down by a bench composed of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justices V Ramasubramanian, and J B Pardiwala.

In accordance with the procedure, the UPSC is required to compile a list of three senior police officers in consultation with the state government and other stakeholders. The state is free to appoint any one of these officers as the DGP.

The bench stated that the UPSC and the Union Ministry of Home Affairs can decide whether the 30-year service requirement for IPS officers should be reduced to 25 years.

The state government argued that in small states like Nagaland, it was very hard to find three senior IPS officers with 30 years of experience who could be considered for UPSC appointment.

The supreme court then instructed the Nagaland government to appoint Sharma, an officer from the 1992 batch, as the DGP within a week.

T J Longkumer, a 1991-batch IPS officer who resigned from the position earlier this month, allegedly did not meet the criteria set by the apex court in the Prakash Singh case. As a result, the top court was hearing a plea seeking enforcement of its earlier directions on the appointment of the Nagaland DGP.

Also read : KBC fame IPS Rupin Sharma takes charge as new DGP Nagaland from January 7