Ex-CAPF officials file contempt plea against Home Secretary for not implementing Supreme Court order

Retired Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) officers have filed a contempt petition in the Supreme Court against the Union Home Secretary following the non-implementation of the court’s 2025 ruling to “progressively reduce” the deputation of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers in the Senior Administrative Grade or up to the rank of Inspector General (IG) in CAPFs.

The petition has been filed against Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan by four retired officials – Mahender Singh Deo, Radha Mohan Meena, Vikesh Kumar and Sanjay Prakash, the original petitioner in the case. The petitions were filed on December 3, 6 and 9.

On May 23, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that Group A Executive Cadre officers of CAPFs are Organised Group A Services (OGAS) for all purposes. Besides progressively reducing the IPS deputation in CAPFs up to the level of IGs in the next two years, the court asked for time-bound review of cadre and service rules in six months.

The Union Home Ministry, the cadre-controlling authority of both the CAPFs and the IPS, challenged the judgment but on October 28, 2025, the top court dismissed the review petition, making the ruling final.

On December 26, the Ministry wrote to the Director General of all CAPFs – the Central Reserve Police Force, Border Security Force, Sashastra Seema Bal, Indo Tibetan Border Police, Central Industrial Security Force and the Assam Rifles to undertake a comprehensive review of Group A cadres and submit detailed proposals to the Ministry.

A CAPF official pointed out that the May 23 judgment of the Supreme Court not only asked the Ministry to review the cadre rules for the Group A officials but also asked to review the service rules within a period of six months that effectively grant them the status of OGAS.

Cadre review is typically done every five years to estimate future human resources requirements, plan recruitment to avoid future promotional blocks, to harmonise the functional needs with the legitimate career expectations of its members and to enhance the effectiveness of the service. The last cadre review of CAPFs was done in 2016.

Following the Ministry’s letter, the DGs of all CAPFs constituted internal committees comprising IPS and CAPF officials to finalise the cadre review.

The Ministry on November 27, 2025, wrote to all CAPFs with a request to examine the Supreme Court judgment and “furnish detailed/consequent action that needs to be taken for implementation of the court order and impact/difficulties/financial implication if any, while implementing the order.”

“The lateral entry of IPS officers in CAPFs continue despite SC directives and there is no attempt to amend the service rules,” said the official.

Presently, 20% posts in the rank of Deputy Inspector General and 50% posts in the rank of IG in CAPFs are reserved for IPS officers. The court’s decision is meant to significantly reduce the IPS dominance in CAPFs. Around 13,000 CAPF officers are likely to benefit from the judgement leading to faster promotions and overcome issues of stagnation.