A debate is under way in police circles on the tenure of Sandeep Rai Rathore, appointed Tamil Nadu’s Director-General of Police and Head of Police Force on the directions of the Election Commission of India, in place of G. Venkatraman, the in-charge DGP/HoPF.
The posting comes with a promotion, as Mr. Rathore will be entitled to the Apex Scale (Level-17 of the pay matrix), equivalent to that of Chief Secretary. However, the EC order did not specify a tenure for him. The question is whether Mr. Rathore would be entitled to a minimum two-year tenure. The Supreme Court, in the landmark Prakash Singh case, had ruled that a State DGP/HoPF should have a minimum two-year tenure, irrespective of the date of superannuation. However, that ruling applies to appointments made through the UPSC-led process.
In the present case, the EC invoked its powers under Article 324 of the Constitution, which vests in it the “superintendence, direction, and control” of elections, to make the appointment. “In the normal course, officers appointed or transferred by the EC during elections are replaced by the incoming government. However, this is a rare instance in which the EC has appointed a DGP/HoPF instead of a DGP (Elections). There is no clear precedent for such an appointee to get a full tenure or be removed,” a senior police officer said.
