JOINT COMMISSIONER OF POLICE Vs. SUBE SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether Joint Commissioner of Police can be a disciplinary authority of the respondents of the writ petitions, is the question involved in this batch of writ petitions which arise out of judgments and orders passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal in several writ petitions. As identical questions are involved in these writ petitions, the factual matrix of the matter would be noticed from CW 6689/2001.

(2.) Delhi Police Force is constituted in terms of Delhi Police Act, 1978. Cadre strength of its senior officers is fixed at 49 by the Central Government through Ministry of Home Affairs since 1995. The cadre strength of the senior officers includes Commissioner of Police, Senior Additional Commissioner of Police, Deputy Commissioner of Police and Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police. Their scales of pay are prescribed by the State. The Commissioner of Police is in the highest scale of pay whereas the Senior Additional Commissioner of Police, Additional Commissioner of Police and Deputy Commissioner of Police are lower. A notification was issued on 3/03/1998 by the Central Government in terms of the provisions of the All India Services Act, 1951 and Indian Police Service (Fixation of Cadre Strength) Regulations, 1955 prescribing different posts of the grades of Commissioners, Special Commissioners, Joint Commissioners, Additional Commissioners and Additional Deputy Commissioners of Delhi Police with the same total strength. Till 1998, however, there was no post of the grade or rank of Joint Commissioner in the Delhi Police Force.

(3.) The post of Joint Commissioner of Police was created by way of upgradation of the pay scale of the Additional Commissioner of Police with a higher pay scale.