DMK petitions Chief Election Commission to amend Tamil Nadu DGP appointment order

Tamil Nadu: The DMK has filed a petition with the Chief Election Commission, demanding that the Election Commission modify its order or issue a clarification that he is only the DGP-in-Charge, as the Election Commission’s action to appoint senior IPS officer Sandeep Roy Rathore as the Tamil Nadu DGP and Chief of Police (HOPF) would be against the Supreme Court order. A four-page letter written by DMK Lok Sabha group leader and party treasurer T.R. Baalu ​​to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi was submitted to the Election Commission on Wednesday. The details are as follows:

Under Article 324 of the Constitution of India, the Election Commission of India can only issue guidelines for the proper conduct of elections. If the Election Commission deems it necessary to appoint an officer of its choice as the Director General of Police (DGP) of a state to maintain fairness and take charge of law and order and security during elections, the Election Commission can only appoint that officer as the “DGP-in-Charge” until the election process is completed.

In other election-bound states, such as West Bengal, when the DGP was recently transferred, the order referred to him as the “DGP-in-Charge.” The law states that such appointments are valid only until the election process is completed. Consequently, the Chief Election Commission’s move to appoint Sandeep Roy Rathore as the full-time Chief of Police in Tamil Nadu is not only illegal but also clearly discriminatory against Tamil Nadu.

When appointing a state Director General of Police and Army Chief, only the orders and guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the “Prakash Singh case” should be followed. The Election Commission cannot initiate such an appointment process on its own. The government that comes to power after the election results are declared will resume the regular process of appointing a full-time DGP.

Therefore, to avoid a situation where different Supreme Court orders are considered to be violated and to avoid legal complications arising from this, we request that the order issued on April 2 appointing Sandeep Rai Rathore as full-time DGP and Chief of Police be modified or clarified to state that he is only the in-charge DGP, the petition states.