The central administrative tribunal (CAT) on Wednesday directed the Bengal government to submit a fresh list of candidates for the post of director-general of police (DGP), allowing the UPSC to prepare a panel of three officers from which the state will make its final selection.

Sources in the state home department said the government sent the revised list to the UPSC by Wednesday evening, within hours of the tribunal’s order.

The DGP post in Bengal fell vacant on December 28, 2023, following the retirement of Manoj Malviya. Since then, Rajeev Kumar, a 1989-batch IPS officer, has been serving as acting DGP.

According to Supreme Court directives, the state government should have sent a panel of eligible officers to the UPSC at least three months before the incumbent DGP’s retirement. However, the proposal was allegedly submitted nearly one-and-a-half years late, in July 2025, with a list of 10 IPS officers, among them acting DGP Rajeev Kumar.

The UPSC then shortlisted three candidates, but the process was stalled after 1990-batch IPS officer Rajesh Kumar — now principal secretary in the department of mass education extension and library sciences — challenged the selection. Rajesh Kumar approached the tribunal seeking directions for the UPSC to include him in “a panel of three senior-most IPS officers... for appointment to the post of Director General of Police (Head of Police Force)”.

The tribunal’s order on Wednesday stated: “DGP (HoPF), West Bengal, was on the vacancy date of 27.12.2023.... It is the case of the applicant that the vacancy to the post of DGP (HoPF), West Bengal, arose on 27.12.2023...”

“Respondent No 3, i.e. the State of West Bengal, however, forwarded the proposal for empanelment only on 16.07.2025, comprising the names of ten IPS officers, including the applicant. It is further thecase of the applicant that despite receipt of the said proposal, respondent No. 1 (UPSC) did not prepare the panel in accordance with the governing guidelines,” the tribunal order stated.

Rajesh Kumar, whose retirement is scheduled for the end of January, had argued that “any further delay in preparation of the panel would cause seriousand irreversible prejudice to his right to be consideredfor appointment to thesaid post.”

Taking the prayer into account, the tribunal directed the state to submit a fresh list of candidates by January 23. The UPSC has been asked to convene a meeting of the empanelment committee on or before January 28, prepare the panel following the rules, and forward it to the state byJanuary 29.

Both Rajesh Kumar and Rajeev Kumar, two of the senior-most IPS officers in the Bengal cadre, are set to retire on January 31.