With preferred official not in UPSC list of new SPC, CM Vijayan seeks legal advice

Thiruvananthapuram, June 28 (IANS) Hours after the UPSC team, which met in New Delhi on Thursday, zeroed in on three candidates from the list given by the Kerala government for the job of the new State Police Chief (SPC), Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sought legal opinion on it.

According to reports, CM Vijayan has sought legal opinion from high profile legal luminaries to see if the list can be bypassed, reportedly with the intention to bring in one of his preferred police officers.

When CM Vijayan had sent the list of IPS officials to the UPSC, it had included the names of Nithin Agarwal, Ravadha Chandrasekhar, Yogesh Gupta, and Manoj Abraham (all of them holding the rank of the Director General of Police).

The Vijayan government had purportedly tried to include in the list two Additional Directors General of Police, namely Suresh Raj Purohit and Vijayan’s favoured M.R. Ajith Kumar, but this was shot down.

The UPSC did not even consider Abraham from among the four names sent to it, as the other three had no issues with regards to their service track record.

According to sources, CM Vijayan has now asked legal brains to look into how in seven states in the country, the SPC is an official holding charge, even when qualified officials are there.

CM Vijayan is mulling how Kerala can also follow the other seven states and bring in either Kumar or Abraham.

However, former Director General of Prosecution Kerala, T. Asaf Ali said under no circumstances is that possible after the 2011 Police Act became law.

“Vijayan should not forget what happened when he tinkered with the rules and appointed a new SPC, the day he took over in 2016. The person who was moved out got relief from the apex court and hence no attempts should be made to appoint an incharge SPC,” said Ali.

However, time is now running out for CM Vijayan as he has just one working day on Monday to decide, as the incumbent SPC Sheikh Darvesh Sahib superannuates on that day and by evening, the new SPC has to take over.

--IANS

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