Chandigarh, Feb 7 (IANS): Rejecting his special leave petition (SLP) against the Punjab and Haryana High Court's ruling staying the CAT order against Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta's appointment, the Supreme Court on Friday declined relief to Punjab DGP hopeful Mohammad Mustafa.

The high court, in its order dated January 21, had stayed the judgment of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) quashing the appointment of Gupta as the Director General of Police (DGP). The Amarinder Singh-led government had appointed Gupta as the DGP from the panel of names sent by the UPSC to the state.

With the apex court declining to interfere in the SLP against the interim stay granted by the high court, Mustafa's counsel P.S. Patwalia chose to withdraw the plea, paving way for the high court to hear the matter on February 26 as scheduled.

Earlier, the bench of Justice Sanjeev Khanna and Justice Abul Nazeer pointed out that the order of the high court was an interim order, and the matter was yet to be heard by it.

Refuting the contention made by Mustafa's counsel that the state would try and delay the matter, Attorney General K.K. Venugopal and state's Advocate General Atul Nanda made it clear that the state would contest the matter and argue it before the high court.

In his plea, Mustafa had mainly questioned the "long date" given by the high court for hearing his appeal.

His plea had emphasised on the fact that he was due to retire in February 2021 and as per an apex court judgment, the candidate to be selected as DGP should have a minimum residual tenure of six months and not be on the verge of retirement.

"If the dispute is allowed to go on and the selection of the petitioner is not considered latest by August 2020, as six months' tenure is necessary for being considered for the post of DGP, the petitioner will be left out of the entire selection process even after succeeding before the tribunal," the SLP said.