The apex court on Monday (July 30) said that if there is sudden vacancy in the post of Director General of Police (DGP), then on interim basis a DGP has to be appointed.

It is to be noted that on the last hearing, the court had ruled that States must approach the UPSC mandatorily three months before the retirement of the incumbent DGP for selection of police chief.

The order of the Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud came during hearing of a petition filed by Prakash Singh, former DGP of Assam and Uttar Pradesh seeking police reforms.

During the course of proceedings, the bench was informed that its last order had left some scope of ambiguity as in case of sudden vacancy in the office, there has to be someone to be appointed in the office at that point of time seeking modification of its order.

The bench said that there was no need of the modification of the last order but granted the petitioner the liberty to file plea in case of clarification.

The matter was listed after four weeks.

—India Legal Bureau