Amid Supreme Court's decision to significantly reduce the IPS dominance in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs), the Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan has urged States to send more Indian Police Service (IPS) officers on Central deputation.
The middle to senior rank positions in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and Central Police Organisations (CPOs), which include the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the National Investigation Agency (NIA), and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), are filed through deputation.
The Supreme Court on October 28, 2025, dismissed a review petition filed by the Union Government against the court's May 23, 2025 ruling to “progressively reduce” the deputation of IPS officers in the senior administrative grade (SAG) or up to the rank of Inspector-General in the CAPFs.
According to recent reports, around 20% posts in the rank of Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) and 50% posts in the rank of Inspector-General (IG) in the CAPFs are reserved for IPS officers.
As on December 23, out of the 188 posts at the DIG/IG level that are reserved for IPS officers in CAPFs such as BSF, CRPF, CISF, ITBP and the SSB, 36 posts are vacant.
Advisory to States
The Union Home Minister in the letter has written that some of the States/cadres do not send a sufficient number of nominations for Central deputation. Further, many a time, the State governments send more names of senior IPS officers, but they do not propose the names for appointment to the posts of Superintendent of Police to Inspector-General.
“Sometimes State governments withdraw the names of the officers from offer, subsequent to their selection to a post or do not relieve them for taking up the assignment at the Centre consequent upon their selection. This results in considerable delay in placement of officers at the Centre and adversely impacts the entire process of selection, deputation and cadre management,” the letter said.
The Home Secretary said that the Government of India has been following the policy of debarring officers from Central deputation for five years if he/she, on being selected, does not join within one month of issue of his/her appointment order, either on account of personal disinclination or on refusal by the State government concerned to relieve the officer.
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