New Delhi, Aug 13: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to defer the process of selecting Odisha’s next Director General of Police (DGP) until August 18.

The Court is scheduled to hear a petition challenging the selection process on August 18.

The direction came after senior advocate P Chidambaram mentioned a Public Interest Litigation before a bench headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant. The petition alleged that the Odisha government’s process for selecting the new DGP violates the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in its 2006 Prakash Singh judgment.

Chidambaram told the bench that the UPSC was expected to hold a meeting on Thursday to finalise the panel of candidates. Although the petition was listed for the day, it was unlikely to be taken up, prompting him to seek an urgent hearing before the bench rose for lunch.

Odisha Advocate General Pitambar Acharya denied any violation of the prescribed norms and questioned the maintainability of the PIL, arguing that it concerned a service-related dispute.

The bench sought the opinion of senior advocate Raju Ramachandran, the amicus curiae in the Prakash Singh case. Ramachandran supported the petition and submitted that the DGP selection process was not in conformity with the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court.

After taking note of the amicus curiae’s position, the Court directed the counsel appearing for the UPSC to defer the scheduled meeting until the next hearing on August 18.

The intervention came in response to allegations that the Odisha government was attempting to bypass the procedure prescribed by the Supreme Court for appointing state police chiefs by introducing officers who were not among the three senior-most eligible officers originally recommended for consideration by the UPSC.

According to the petition, the Odisha government initially forwarded the names of three senior officers—Sudhanshu Sarangi, a 1990-batch IPS officer, and Susanta Kumar Nath and R P Koche, both 1993-batch officers—for consideration by the UPSC.

Odisha DGP YB Khurania, a 1990-batch IPS officer, is due to retire on August 16.