The Supreme Court has transferred the contempt proceedings concerning the alleged non-compliance with its directions on deputation of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) before a Special Bench comprising Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan.
The matter is scheduled to be taken up by the Special Bench at 2 PM on Wednesday.
The development follows a controversy before the Court on Tuesday after a Bench of Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice Atul S. Chandurkar questioned the Registry over the removal of the contempt petitions from the cause list despite a specific judicial direction requiring the matters to be listed.
The contempt proceedings relate to the Supreme Court’s May 2025 judgment in Sanjay Prakash v. Union of India, in which a Bench comprising Justice A.S. Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan directed that the number of posts earmarked for deputation of IPS officers in CAPF cadres up to the Senior Administrative Grade (SAG) be progressively reduced within an outer limit of two years.
The Court had also directed a comprehensive review of the cadre structure and service and recruitment rules governing the CAPFs, with the exercise to be completed within six months.
Subsequently, contempt petitions were filed alleging that the directions contained in the 2025 judgment had not been duly implemented. During the proceedings, the Court had called upon the Ministry of Home Affairs to explain the deputation of IPS officers to the CAPFs after the judgment.
In an order passed on September 2, the Court recorded that 46 IPS officers had been brought on deputation to the five CAPFs up to the SAG level after the May 2025 judgment. The Ministry of Home Affairs was consequently directed to explain the procedure followed for these deputations and the circumstances in which such appointments were made despite the Court’s direction for a progressive reduction in deputation posts.
The matter was subsequently directed to be listed for further consideration.
On Tuesday, when the contempt petitions came up before Justice Bhuyan and Justice Chandurkar, the Bench was informed that the cases had been deleted from the cause list. The Bench, having regard to its earlier judicial direction for listing, sought an explanation from the Registry regarding the circumstances in which the matters were removed.
The Court directed that the contempt proceedings, along with the connected matters, be listed before the Special Bench on Wednesday at 2 PM, accompanied by a Registry note explaining the deletion from the cause list.
The Special Bench headed by Justice Manoj Misra is already seized of writ petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026, which was enacted subsequent to the Supreme Court’s 2025 judgment.
The present proceedings therefore bring before the Special Bench both the questions arising from the alleged non-compliance with the earlier judicial directions and the connected constitutional challenge concerning the legislative framework governing administration and deputation within the CAPFs.
The post CAPF contempt matter relating to IPS deputations listed before special bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan appeared first on India Legal.