A day after being pulled up by the Supreme Court for alleged violation of its 2006 directive on maintaining the minimum two-year term of the Director General and Inspector General of Police, sources in the government said the state will file another affidavit before the apex court early next week submitting that it is unable to grant two-year tenure to the head of the police force irrespective of his superannuation unless the Centre amends the All India Services Rules (Cadre & Recruitment) or the apex court directs them to implement the order pending amendment.
“The government will abide by the court order. If the court directs us to grant two-year tenure to the DG&IGP irrespective of his retirement, we will do so,” said the top bureaucrat.
In December 2010, the Karnataka and Maharashtra governments, in their affidavits on implementation of police reforms in the Prakash Singh vs Union of India case, had requested the apex court to direct the Government of India to amend the All India Service Rules to enable them to grant a two-year tenure to the police chief beyond his retirement. “We had submitted two affidavits to the court in December 2010 and January 2011 that, as per the existing AIS Rules, the government can grant two-year tenure to the police chief subject to his superannuation. The Central government will have to amend the AIS Rules. So far, there has been no move in this direction. We will however, abide by the court orders,” said the officer.
A bench of Justice Aftab Alam and Justice C.K. Prasad, on Thursday, while hearing two special leave petitions (SLPs) by the ousted DG&IGP Shankar Mahadev Bidari, had pulled up the State government for failing to adhere to its order with regard to police reforms.