Prakash Singh & Ors. v. Union of India

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s). 310/1996

PRAKASH SINGH & ORS. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
UNION OF INDIA Respondent(s)

[ONLY IA NO. 201897/2026 IN WP(C) NO. 310/1996 AND T.C.(C) No.141/2025 ARE LISTED UNDER THIS ITEM] IA No. 201897/2026 - CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION
WITH
T.C.(C) No. 141/2025 (XVI-A) IA No. 36460/2026 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS IA No. 36461/2026 - EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T.

Date : 08-10-2026 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM : HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE JOYMALYA BAGCHI
HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE V. MOHANA

Appearances: Mr. Raju Ramachandran (Amicus Curiae) Ms. Charu Mathur; (Co-Amicus Curiae) Mr. Aljo K Joseph (Co-Amicus Curiae) For Petitioner(s) :Mr. Prashant Bhushan- 515, AOR Mr. Rahul Gupta, Adv. By Courts Motion Mr. Abhisek Rai, Adv. Mr. Gyanant Singh, Adv. Mr. Dilraj Singh, Adv. Mr. Prabsimran Singh, Adv. Ms. Vivya Nagpal- 3465, AOR For Respondent(s) :Ms. Hemantika Wahi- 226, AOR Mr. T. Harish Kumar- 1418, AOR Mr. T. V. George- 1441, AOR Mr. C. K. Sasi- 1323, AOR Mr. P. V. Yogeswaran- 1385, AOR Mr. V. N. Raghupathy- 1281, AOR Mr. Kamlendra Mishra- 1367, AOR Mr. Rajeev Kumar Dubey, Adv. Mr. Ashiwan Mishra, Adv. Ms. Aditi Mishra, Adv. Mr. Ranjan Mukherjee- 1042, AOR M/s. S. Narain & Co.- 1054, AOR Mr. Lakshmi Raman Singh- 314, AOR Mr. P. Parmeswaran- 509, AOR Mr. Anuvrat Sharma- 1542, AOR Mr. Gunnam Venkateswara Rao- 1592, AOR Mr. Kuldip Singh- 1389, AOR Mrs. Anil Katiyar- 50, AOR Mr. Mohanprasad Meharia- 1373, AOR Mr. Amrish Kumar- 2986, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Arunabh Chowdhury, Sr. Adv. Ms. Pallavi Langar, AOR Ms. Pragya Baghel, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Anushka Raghunath, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Radha Shyam Jena- 1167, AOR Mr. Ashok Mathur- 55, AOR Mr. Dharmendra Kumar Sinha- 1405, AOR Mr. P. Roychaudhuri, Adv. M/s. Venkat Palwai Law Associates- 2159, AOR Ms. Sumita Hazarika- 1376, AOR Mr. R Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Chinmayee Chandra, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Raman Yadav, Adv. Mr. Chitvan Singhal, Adv. Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Mr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Arvind Kumar Sharma, AOR Dr. Arun Kumar Yadav, Adv. Mr. Rajesh Srivastava- 1344, AOR Mr. Gopal Prasad- 1252, AOR Mr. Anil Shrivastav- 1195, AOR Mr. Bijender Singh Chauham Adv. Mr. Sandeep Singh Dingra, Adv. Mr. Kishor Kumar Pandey, Adv. Mr. Sanjiv Kumar Jain, Adv. Mr. Devendra Singh Mehra- 972, AOR Mr. Gopal Singh- 211, AOR Mr. Guntur Pramod Kumar- 2788, AOR Ms. Prerna Singh, Adv. Mr. Shreeyash Uday Lalit, Adv. Mr. Keshav Singh, Adv. Ms. Disha Singh- 3175, AOR Ms. Eliza Barr, Adv. Ms. Akansha, Adv. Ms. Anjali Saxena, Adv. Mr. Govind Sharma, Adv. Mr. Saanil Patnayak, Adv. Mr. Shuvodeep Roy- 1672, AOR Mr. Saurabh Tripathi, Adv. Mr. Deepayan Dutta, Adv. Mr. Azmat Hayat Amanullah- 2758, AOR Ms. Rebecca Mishra, Adv. Ms. Vanshita Gupta, Adv. Mr. Merusagar Samantaray- 1694, AOR Ms. Swati Ghildiyal, AOR Ms. Aditi Agarwal, Adv. Ms. Deepanwita Priyanka- 2618, AOR Mr. Satyalipsu Ray, Adv. Mr. Prashant Bhagwati, Adv. Mr. B. K. Satija, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Samar Vijay Singh, AOR Ms. Sabarni Som, Adv. Mr. Aman Dev Sharma, Adv. Mr. Prateek Parasher, Adv. Mr. Ritesh Kumar Gupta, Adv. Mr. Rohit Bansal- 4016, AOR Mr. Pashupathi Nath Razdan- 2054, AOR Mr. Aman Panwar, A.A.G. Mr. Sanchit Garga, AOR Mr. Kunal Rana, Adv. Mr. Shashwat Jaiswal, Adv. Mr. Manav Kaushik, Adv. Mr. Nakul Srivastav, Adv. Mr. Rishi Yadav, Adv. Ms. Diksha Arora, Adv. Ms. Aranya Sahay, Adv. Mr. Zulfiker Ali P. S- 2055, AOR Mr. Manish Sindwani, Adv. Ms. Anna Oommen, Adv. Ms. Lebina Baby, Adv. Mr. Shrirang B. Varma, Adv. Mr. Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Adv. Mr. Aaditya Aniruddha Pande- 3259, AOR Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar- 1593, AOR Mr. Karun Shamra, Adv. Ms. Anupama Ngangom, Adv. Ms. Rajkumari Divyasana, Adv. Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi- 2648, AOR Mr. Z.H. Isaac Haiding, Adv. Mr. Daniel Stone Lyngdoh, Adv. Ms. Marbiang Khongwir, Adv. Mr. Aditya Kumar, Adv. Mr. Anando Mukherjee- 2500, AOR Mr. Shwetank Singh, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Anand, Adv. Ms. Mithu Jain- 2457, AOR Mr. Karan Sharma- 3081, AOR Mr. Shiv Mangal Sharma, A.A.G. Mr. Shivansh B. Pandya, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Rajpal, Adv. Ms. Nidhi Jaswal- 2955, AOR For Sikkim Mr. Basava Prabhu S Patil, Adv. Gen. (Sr. Adv.) Mr. Sameer Abhyankar- 2516, AOR Mr. Krishna Rastogi, Adv. Mr. Samarth Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Arijeet Shukla, Adv. Mr. Nalin Talwar, Adv. Ms. Rupali Francesca Samuel- 4335, AOR Ms. K. V. Vinaya, Adv. Mr. K.M. Nataraj, ASG Ms. Ruchira Goel- 2477, AOR Mr. Abhishek- 1785, AOR M/s. Plr Chambers And Co.- 2588, AOR Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Ms. Jyotika, Adv. Mr. Rahul Pratap- 1996, AOR Mr. Kapil Sibal, Sr. Adv. Mr. Arunabh Chowdhury, Sr. Adv. Ms. Pallavi Langar, AOR Ms. Pragya Baghel, Adv. Mr. Sujeet Kumar Chaubey, Adv. Ms. Anushka Raghunath, Adv. Ms. Aparajita Jamwal, Adv. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker- 2357, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar- 3438, AOR Mr. Vivek Sharma, Advocate General Mr. Bishwajit Dubey, A.A.G. Mr. Vinayak Sharma, Standing Counsel, Adv. Mr. Yashvardhan Shah, Adv. Mr. Ravinder Kumar Yadav, AOR Ms. Jaikriti S. Jadeja- 2299, AOR Mr. Abhishek Atrey- 1601, AOR Dr. Abhishek Atrey, Adv. Mr. Vikas Negi, Adv. Ms. Vidyottma Jha, Adv. Mr. Brijesh Kumar, Adv. Mr. B. Karunakaran- 3845, AOR Mr. Mukesh Kumar Maroria- 2324, AOR Mr. Soumya Dutta- 2537, AOR Mr. Rakesh K. Sharma- 1113, AOR Mr. Amrish Kumar- 2986, AOR Intervenor-in-person Applicant-in-person Ms. Kamakshi S. Mehlwal- 1263, AOR Mr. Sanveer Mehlwal, Adv. Ms. Geetanjali Mehlwal, Adv. Mr. Sandeep Kumar, Adv. Mr. Abhik Kumar, Adv. Mr. Rajiv Kumar Choudhry- 3138, AOR Mr. Raju Ramcharan, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aljo K. Joseph, AOR Ms. Charu Mathur, Adv. Ms. Shruti Narayan, Adv. Ms. Nida Khan Salim, Adv. Mr. Ankit Yadav, AOR Mrs. Lalita Kaushik- 832, AOR Mr. R. Venkataramani, Attorney General for India Mr. Vikramjit Banerjee, A.S.G. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Verma, Adv. Mr. Neeraj Kumar Sharma, Adv. Ms. Indira Bhakar, Adv. Mr. Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, AOR Mr. Chinmayee Chandra, Adv. Mr. Padmesh Mishra, Adv. Ms. Ameyavikrama Thanvi, Adv. Mr. Kartikay Aggarwal, Adv. Mr. Mukesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Mr. Dr. N Visakamurthy (aor), Adv. Ms. Charu Mathur- 1642, AOR Mr. Aniruddha Purushotham, AOR Mr. Ankit Kumar, Adv. Ms. Shradha, Adv. Mr. Prince Yadav, Adv. Mr. Sushant Singh, Adv. Mr. Anoop Kumar N., Adv. Mr. Ashish Rana, Adv. Mr. Abhay Singh Naryal, Adv. Mr. Hrishikesh Baruah, Sr. Adv. Ms. Radhika Gupta- 3310, AOR Ms. Pragya Agarwal, Adv. Mr. Utkarsh Dwivedi, Adv. Mr. Kumar Kshitij, Adv. Ms. Nistha Sachan, Adv. Mr. Yashaswy Ghosh, Adv. Mr. Pratham Pandey, Adv. Mr. Saket Verma, Adv. Ms. Devina Sehgal, AOR Mr. Yatharth Kansal, Adv. M/S. Tas Law- 3363, AOR Mr. Ajay Pal- 1570, AOR Ms. Astha Singh- 3907, AOR Ms. Sanjana Saddy- 3231, AOR

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following

O R D E R

1. The State of Jharkhand, in purported exercise of its powers under Section 46(2) and (3) read with Section 2 of the Police Act, 1861, has notified the Selection and Appointment of the Director General and Inspector General of Police (Head of the Police Force) Regulations, 2025. Under the amended Regulations, an officer has been made eligible to be considered for appointment as Director General of Police of the State even if the total service before superannuation is less than six months, by giving credit to retrospective service.

2. Such a provision, prima facie, seems to be directly in teeth of the law laid down by this Court in Prakash Singh. In the event of the Rule being annulled, the consequential appointment of Smt. Tadasha Mishra, Director General of Police, Jharkhand State, would also be required to be set aside.

3. We, therefore, deem it appropriate to accord her an opportunity of being heard, for which the State of Jharkhand is directed to serve notice on her to enable her to appear and assist this Court. Meanwhile, the State of Jharkhand shall be at liberty to revisit the purportedly offending Rule. Alternatively, the State shall be at liberty to file its counter-affidavit.

4. We have also requested Shri Raju Ramachandran, learned Senior Counsel and Amicus Curiae, to assist us on the validity of the Rule(s) formulated by the State of Jharkhand with respect to appointment of the Director General of Police. He is also similarly requested to appraise other such statutes/Rules/Regulations and consequential appointments made by other States as well.

5. The Union Public Service Commission is also directed to assist the learned Amicus Curiae in this regard.

6. The note submitted by the Union of India is taken on record.

7. Post the matters on 03.11.2026.

(ARJUN BISHT) ASTT. REGISTRAR-cum-PS
(PREETHI DILEEP KUMAR) DY. REGISTRAR