SC contempt notice to Nagaland government

Dimapur, March 7 (EMN): The Supreme Court of India has served a notice of contempt to the government of Nagaland over the appointment of the incumbent Director General of Police, TJ Longkumer. A group of people by the name ‘Concerned people of Nagaland’ had filed a petition before the apex court alleging that the government of Nagaland had “illegally removed” Rupin Sharma, Longkumer’s predecessor, as DGP in 2018. In a court document dated Feb. 28, and made available to the local press on Thursday, the Supreme Court has directed the Nagaland government to reply to the notice within six weeks. It has observed that the Nagaland government did not follow the court’s directive to prepare a panel of senior IPS officers for appointment of DGP. In August last year, when the group had served a legal notice to the government, the deputy chief minister of Nagaland, Y Patton, who is also the minister in-charge of Home, then told Eastern Mirror that the petitioner has no locus standi as the state government had followed ‘due procedures’ in appointing an officer who was senior to Sharma.