Delhi top cop pick: SC leaves issue open for future ruling

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deferred ruling on whether the appointment of the Delhi Police commissioner should align with the top court's landmark 2006 judgment in the Prakash Singh case which set criteria for selecting state police chiefs and mandated their fixed tenure.

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI:

A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh noted that the legal question stemmed from the controversy surrounding the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as the Delhi Police commissioner in July 2021, but deemed the issue infructuous following his retirement a year later. The court held that it need not review the Delhi high court's October 2021 judgment, which had affirmed Asthana's appointment while ruling that the Prakash Singh guidelines—specifically, the six-month residual service rule—did not apply to the police chief in Delhi.

However, the bench left the legal question open for future cases. "Keeping in view the intervening developments (Asthana's retirement), the petition is disposed of while keeping the questions of law open, to be decided at an appropriate stage," stated the bench in its order.