The Election Commission (EC) has revoked the appointment of Vivek Sahay as West Bengal’s director general of police (DGP) less than 24 hours after announcing it. The Commission directed the state government to appoint Sanjoy Mukherjee instead, who is a year junior to Sahay in the IPS cadre, to the position.
This decision has made Sahay the shortest-serving DGP in the history of West Bengal, raising questions and drawing attention to the swift change in leadership at the top of the state’s police force.
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Sahay, belonging to the IPS batch of 1988, was initially chosen for the DGP position due to his seniority within the force. However, given his impending retirement on May 31, well before the conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4, the Election Commission reconsidered and contemplated appointing Mukherjee, a 1989 batch officer, as the DGP, according to a senior official.
Mukherjee, currently serving as the Director General of the state Fire and Emergency Services, was the second candidate on the list of three officers recommended by the Bengal government for the DGP post to the ECI, following the removal of Rajeev Kumar from the position in anticipation of the elections a few days back.
On Monday, in response to the ECI’s directive to assign Rajeev Kumar to a non-election-related role and to appoint an officer junior to him as the interim DGP, the Bengal government recommended Sahay as his replacement.
While the state home department issued the notification of Sahay’s appointment, referring to the ECI’s order, the subsequent notification for Mukherjee’s appointment was directly issued by the Commission itself.
Addressing the sudden change of mind regarding the appointment of the state’s top cop, a senior EC official told PTI that Sahay’s was only an “interim appointment.” However, he did not provide any explicit reasoning for overturning an appointment notified by the state government within less than 24 hours.
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Another official from the poll panel explained that Sahay was chosen initially because of his seniority and experience. However, since Sahay was set to retire in May before the elections ended in June, the EC decided to make a change. As it would have been difficult to replace Sahay during the elections, so they chose Mukherjee instead.
A former IPS officer in the West Bengal cadre, who served the state in senior positions, however, told PTI that the Commission retains the power to extend the tenure of an official if he/she is required for any special assignment, such as the conduct of elections, by the poll body itself.
“I am not convinced that the retirement clause is the only grounds for removing Sahay,” the former officer, requesting anonymity, said.
“Sahay could have been easily retained as the DGP of the state till the elections got over. I believe we never had a DGP for such a small duration ever before in this country,” he added.