Crucial meeting scheduled in Delhi to shortlist DGP candidates for Tamil Nadu deferred

The crucial meeting scheduled in Delhi on Friday to shortlist the names of three Director General of Police-rank officers fit for appointment as DGP/Head of the Police Force of Tamil Nadu police has been deferred, official sources said.

The State Chief Secretary and Home Secretary reached Delhi on Thursday to participate in the Empanelment Committee Meeting (ECM) convened by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). However, the meeting was postponed due to administrative reasons, the sources said.

The ECM was called after the State government sent a revised proposal of DGP-rank officers in Level-16 scale of pay for consideration to the top post. After calling for some missing data and inclusion of names excluded at the proposal level, the UPSC had informed that the ECM would be held on March 20, 2026, the sources said.

The top three officers in the order of seniority are Seema Agrawal, Rajeev Kumar and Sandeep Rai Rathore followed by others. Others in the list are K. Vannia Perumal, Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, G. Venkatraman (presently holding the post of in-charge DGP/HoPF), Vinit Dev Wankhade, Sanjay Mathur, S. Davidson Devasirvatham, Sandeep Mittal and B. Bala Naga Devi.

The ECM was meant to have discussed the eligibility of the officers by considering their qualifying experience, minimum residual service of six months, annual confidential reports, vigilance cases, if any, pending or initiated, etc., to finalise a list of three names for the State government to choose one officer and post him/her as a regular DGP/HoPF with a minimum tenure of two years as per the Supreme Court guidelines in the Prakash Singh case.

While disposing of a contempt petition filed against the Tamil Nadu government for violating its guidelines in the appointment of DGPs, the Supreme Court had directed the State on February 12, 2026 to submit its proposal to the UPSC within one week. The UPSC was told to finalise the panel of three officers in two weeks.

In the earlier ECM, the UPSC had finalised the names of the top three officers by order of seniority. However, the State government did not post any of them as DGP/HoPF. The State Law Minister in a statement on ‘X’ platform said that the three officers were not “acceptable” to the State government.