RANJAN GOGOI, L.NAGESWARA RAO, SANJAY KISHAN KAUL,JJ. - (1.) I.A. No. 144172/2018 filed on behalf of the State of Punjab for modification of the order of this Court, dated 3.7.2018 is being taken up, as the order passed therein would cover the similar prayers made in the interlocutory applications filed on behalf of States of Haryana, West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar. "The commitment, devotion and accountability of the police has to be only to the rule of law. The supervision and control has to be such that it ensures that the police serves the people without any regard, whatsoever, to the status and position of any person while investigating a crime or taking preventive measures. Its approach has to be service oriented, its role has to be defined so that in appropriate cases, where on account of acts of omission and commission of police, the rule of law becomes a casualty, the guilty police officers are brought to book and appropriate action taken without any delay." (Para 12 of Prakash Singh and Ors. vs. Union of India and Ors., (2006) 8 SCC 1)
(2.) This is the approach that this Court had adopted while seeking to resolve the issue of insulation of the police machinery from political/executive interference in Prakash Singh (supra).
(3.) After an in-depth consideration of the matter, this Court had issued several directions in exercise of the jurisdiction under Article 142 of the Constitution of India, which had been set out in paragraph 31 of the report in Prakash Singh (supra). For the present case, the Court would be concerned with direction number 31(2), which deals with "selection and minimum tenure of DGP", which direction is extracted below:- "Selection and minimum tenure of PGP. (2) The Director General of Police of the State shall be selected by the State Government from amongst the three senior most officers of the Department who have been empanelled for promotion to that rank by the Union Public Service Commission on the basis of their length of service, very good record and range of experience for heading the police force. And, once he has been selected for the job, he should have a minimum tenure of at least two years irrespective of his date of superannuation. The DGP may, however, be relieved of his responsibilities by the State Government acting in consultation with the State Security Commission consequent upon any action taken against him under the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules or following his conviction in a court of law in a criminal offence or in a case of corruption, or if he is otherwise incapacitated from discharging his duties.";