Kolkata: The Election Commission made a surprising move on Tuesday, removing Vivek Sahay as West Bengal’s Director General of Police (DGP) less than 24 hours after appointing him to the post. The commission directed the state government to appoint Sanjoy Mukherjee, who is a year junior to Sahay in the Indian Police Service (IPS) cadre, as his replacement.
This unprecedented decision has made Sahay the shortest-serving DGP in the recent history of West Bengal. Initially, Sahay was offered the appointment as he was the senior-most officer in the force. However, due to his scheduled superannuation on May 31, well before the formal conclusion of the Lok Sabha elections on June 4, the Election Commission considered appointing Mukherjee, who belongs to the 1989 batch of IPS officers, as the DGP.
Mukherjee, who currently serves as the Director General of the state Fire & Emergency Services, was the second officer on the list of three recommended by the Bengal government for the post of DGP to the ECI. This recommendation came after the poll panel directed the removal of Rajeev Kumar from the position in the lead-up to the elections.
On Monday, following the ECI’s instruction to reassign Rajeev Kumar to a “non-election related assignment” and to appoint an officer immediately junior to him as DGP on an interim basis, the Bengal government named Sahay as his replacement.
Interestingly, while Sahay’s appointment notification was issued by the state home department, referring to the ECI order, the notification for Mukherjee’s appointment a day later was directly made by the Commission.
Explaining the sudden change in the appointment, a senior EC official stated that Sahay’s appointment was only interim. He did not provide further justification for why an appointment made by the state government would be overturned in less than 24 hours.
Another official from the poll panel mentioned that Sahay was appointed DGP solely based on his seniority and experience. However, since he was set to retire in May, before the final round of polls on June 1, the ECI decided to make the change. If Sahay had remained in the post, he would have to be replaced again during the election process.
However, a former IPS officer in the West Bengal cadre raised doubts about the retirement clause being the sole reason for Sahay’s removal. He suggested that the Commission retains the power to extend the tenure of an official marked for any special assignment, such as the conduct of elections.
“I am not convinced that the retirement clause is the only grounds for removing Sahay,” the former officer remarked, expressing skepticism about the decision. He believed that Sahay could have been retained until the elections concluded and criticized the unprecedented nature of the short-lived tenure.
Leave a Reply