Supreme Court on Thursday said that newly appointed acting DGP of Jammu and Kashmir shall continue in office, PTI reported on Thursday.

Dilbag Singh took over as the Director General of Police Jammu and Kashmir on September 7.

He succeeded Dr. S.P Vaid who passed on the baton to Dilbag Singh after later was transferred.

The Supreme Court had earlier on September 11 sought the Attorney General’s assistance on a plea by the Jammu and Kashmir administration, seeking sanction for its decision to appoint Dilbagh Singh as acting DGP.

The state had approached the court, seeking exemption for itself from the guidelines regarding tenure of a DGP as laid down by the apex court in the 2006 Prakash Singh case. The apex court had, in that case, issued a slew or directions, including one that says there cannot be any acting DGP for any state and also made it mandatory for states to send a list of three seniormost IPS officers to the UPSC for clearance before appointing the DGP.

The J&K administration on September 6 appointed Singh as acting police chief, replacing S P Vaid who was posted as transport commissioner, without following this procedure.