The Odisha government on Friday appointed senior IPS officer Vinaytosh Mishra as acting director general of police (DGP).
The court is hearing a public interest litigation challenging the state government’s selection process. The court’s intervention followed an application alleging that the Odisha government was attempting to circumvent the Supreme Court’s prescribed procedure for the appointment of DGPs by introducing officers who were not part of the original list of three senior-most eligible officers sent to the UPSC. The dispute centres on the procedure laid down by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Singh case. Senior advocate P.
The appointment comes a day after the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) assured the Supreme Court that it would defer its selection process for the state’s next police chief until August 18. In February 2026, the court reiterated that states must follow the prescribed process for appointing DGPs, under which the UPSC prepares a panel of eligible officers and the state government selects the police chief from that panel.
Chidambaram, appearing for the petitioner in the PIL, told the SC that the state government had breached the Supreme Court’s directions by promoting an additional director general of police and seeking to include the officer among candidates for the DGP post. “The State of Odisha is breaching the Prakash Singh judgment,” Chidambaram told the court, referring to the Supreme Court’s landmark 2006 ruling that laid down procedures for police reforms and appointments of state police chiefs.
Under the framework, the apex-level DGP post in Level 17 is to be filled from among officers holding DGP-level posts in Level 16. Because the number of eligible officers is limited, the court has also said eligibility criteria cannot be bypassed.
Khurania retires on August 16, the state government said in a statement. Mishra, currently director general of the Crime Branch and Criminal Investigation Department, will take additional charge as DGP after incumbent Y.B.
