Haryana to get new DGP on January 1; names of senior IPS officers to be sent to UPSC

Haryana is set to have a new Director General of Police (DGP) on January 1, 2026, with the Nayab Singh Saini government beginning the process of drawing up a panel of senior officers.

The fresh panel is being drawn up as 1992-batch IPS officer OP Singh, who has been holding additional charge of the DGP since October 14, is retiring on December 31. Singh took over after Shatrujeet Kapur was sent on leave after his name being mentioned in the suicide note of IPS officer Y Puran Kumar.

According to reports, the names of five to seven senior IPS officers with at least 30 years of service will be forwarded to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for shortlisting a three-member panel. The state government will then have the discretion to choose the next police chief from among the three.

Officers likely to be considered include 1991-batch officers Shatrujeet Kapur (who still has 11 months before retirement) and SK Jain; 1992-batch officers Ajay Singhal, and Alok Mittal; 1993-batch AS Chawla; and 1994-batch officers Navdeep Singh Virk and Kala Ramachandran, an IPS couple.

The UPSC will scrutinise integrity certificates, service records, and other details of the officers before finalising the panel.

As per the UPSC’s guidelines issued on September 22, 2023, only officers in the DGP rank (level 16 of the pay matrix) with a minimum of 30 years of service are eligible for consideration.