Under new rules passed by the Bengal Cabinet, a selection committee headed by a retired judge of the Calcutta High Court will be responsible for appointing the state’s director general of police (DGP), thus allowing it to bypass the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) in selecting its police chief.

This current rule states that the state government has to send names of the senior-most Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to the UPSC, which would then shortlist three candidates, from which the government has to choose one.

Bengal thus becomes the third state, after Punjab (by the Aam Aadmi Party government in 2023) and Uttar Pradesh (by the Bharatiya Janata Party government in 2024), to eliminate the UPSC from the process of appointing the DGP.

The change in rule will allow the state government to appoint the current acting DGP Rajeev Kumar, who is a favourite of the Trinamool Congress government, to a full two-year term as the DGP without the Union government’s nod.

Kumar was appointed as the acting DGP in December 2023, before being transferred ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 by the Election Commission (EC). Following the elections, he was reinstated as the acting DGP.

According to sources, the new rule is inspired by a 2006 verdict on police reform by the Supreme Court of India, which, among other things, recommended that states set up independent selection panels for DGP appointments.

The Bengal Cabinet decided to constitute the selection committee on Tuesday, April 8. Besides the retired high court judge as its head, it will be made up of the state chief secretary, the Home Department’s principal secretary or additional chief secretary, a UPSC nominee, the West Bengal Public Service Commission Chairman or its nominee and a retired State DGP.