Come January 1, Haryana is set to have a new Director General of Police (DGP), with the Nayab Singh Saini Government initiating the process to prepare a panel of officers for the top post.

A 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 had taken over from Shatrujeet Kapur, who was sent on leave after he was booked by the Chandigarh Police following his name appearing in the suicide note of IPS officer Y Puran Kumar.

Sources said the names of five to seven senior IPS officers, each with over 30 years of service, will be forwarded to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for shortlisting a three-member panel. The state government will have the discretion to appoint the new police chief from the UPSC-approved panel.

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

The UPSC will scrutinise the officers’ integrity certificates and service records before finalising the panel. As per the 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 empanelment.