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The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) finalised a panel of three IPS officers fit for appointment as Director-General of Police/Head of Police Force of Tamil Nadu police.

The UPSC had convened the Empanelment Committee Meeting in Delhi last Friday to shortlist the panel of three DGP-rank officers for the top post. The State was represented by its Chief Secretary N. Muruganandham. Top officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and Central Paramilitary Forces also participated, the sources said. 

The minutes of the meeting and the names of the three eligible officers in the panel has been finalised and would be communicated to the Tamil Nadu Government in a day or two, police sources said.

Once the panel is received, the State would have to immediately appoint one of the officers as a regular DGP/HoPF with a minimum tenure of two years in compliance with the Supreme Court order. 

After sending the panel, the sources said that the integrity certificate for one officer was withdrawn and some issues were flagged against a couple of others seeking their disqualification. There was no response from a top state government official to queries sent by The Hindu in this regard. 

Though the proposal comprising the list of eight eligible DGP-rank officers was sent by the State Government only in the last week of August, the Empanelment Committee Meeting was called on Friday after the Supreme Court, while disposing of a contempt case, requested the UPSC to complete the process expeditiously.

The top three DGPs in the order of seniority are Seema Agrawal, Rajeev Kumar, and Sandeep Rai Rathore. The other officers are K. Vanniaperumal, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, G. Venkatraman (presently in-charge DGP/HoPF), Vinit Dev Wankhede, and Sanjay Mathur. 

In the contempt case, Madurai-based advocate Henri Tiphagne said the 2018 judgment of the Supreme Court required a State to send a proposal in anticipation of vacancy to the DGP post, to the UPSC at least three months prior to the superannuation of the incumbent. 

However, the State had not sent such a proposal to the UPSC within the timeframe for empanelment and also appointed an officer as in-charge DGP/HoPF in violation of the apex court order, he said.