The order was issued almost 20 days after the home ministry considered the “merits” of the case and directed the CRPF to withdraw the suspension.
The highly decorated DIG is a 1994-batch CRPF cadre officer. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a contempt petition filed by the CAPF cadre officers and has sought an affidavit from Union home secretary Govind Mohan on the process followed by the government to depute IPS officers post its May 2025 order which directed curtailing such deputation up to the Inspector General (IG) rank. Because he was the lead petitioner before various courts for fighting cases related to the promotions and service parity of the cadre officers with that of the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers who join the force on deputation, cRPF cadre officers had earlier said that Bidan Chandra Patra was targeted.
The charges against him included alleged sharing of audio-visual and pictorial content on social media platforms that allegedly called for “changing” the country’s lawfully elected government during the passage of the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Bill 2026. An association of ex-CAPF officers has also called a press conference on July 2 against the “hasty and illegal” suspension of the DIG. In their representations sent to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), serving Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) cadre officers had stated that the Bill’s provisions were “oppressive” and “discriminatory” and that they would continue to stagnate in their current ranks if IPS deputations were not curtailed as directed by the Supreme Court in an order issued last year.
He returned to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in April after completing a deputation posting with the federal counter-terrorist commando force NSG. The Centre filed an appeal against this order which the apex court rejected.
The development comes against the backdrop of the continuing dispute over promotions, service parity and IPS deputation in the CAPFs, with the Supreme Court hearing the contempt petition filed by CAPF cadre officers.