On a day when the Punjab government finally sent a panel of 14 Indian Police Service (IPS) officers of DGP rank to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), after four years of resistance, for shortlisting three for the Director General of Police (Head of State Police Force) position, it also gave its first major posting in four years of AAP rule to top contender Sharad Satya Chauhan.Sources said the 1992-batch IPS officers, to which current DGP Gaurav Yadav belongs, form the most eligible group for the top post. Although 1989-batch DGP Parag Jain is the seniormost, he already heads the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).That leaves the top three from the 1992 batch, in order of seniority: Sharad Satya Chauhan (retirement: March 31, 2028); Harpreet Singh Sidhu (May 31, 2027); and Gaurav Yadav (April 30, 2029).Some other names on the panel include 1993-batch IPS officers, Special DGP (Community Affairs & Women Affairs) Gurpreet Kaur Deo; Special DGP (Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd) Dr. Jitendra Kumar Jain; and Special DGP (Railway) Shashi Prabha Dwivedi.From the 1994 batch are Special DGP (Headquarters) Sudhanshi Shekhar Srivastava; Special DGP-cum-Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau, Praveen Kumar Sinha; Special DGP (Traffic & Road Safety) Amardeep Singh Rai; Special DGP (Cyber Crime) V Neeraja; Special DGP-cum-Director, Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy, Anita Punj; and Special DGP (Human Rights) Dr. Naresh Kumar.Dr. Sharad Satya Chauhan, IPS, has been appointed Special DGP-cum-Chief Director, Vigilance Bureau. He was previously heading the Police Housing Corporation, considered an insignificant posting compared to the DGP of the state force.However, the government was yet to post to another claimant as per seniority to the Special DGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu, who returned to the state last year after deputation with the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).The AAP government had resisted submitting the panel to the UPSC. The last DGP appointed through this process was VK Bhawra, whom the AAP government asked to proceed on leave in June 2022, days after the killing of Sidhu Moosewala.It then handpicked Gaurav Yadav, who has continued as DGP since. The process follows Supreme Court directives in the 2006 Prakash Singh case (and subsequent clarifications), which require states to send a list of eligible senior IPS officers to the UPSC three months before a vacancy. The UPSC then shortlists three names, from which the state selects one.Punjab had earlier resisted by passing the Punjab Police (Amendment) Bill in 2023 to empower state-level appointments via a separate committee (still awaiting presidential assent). Recent UPSC reminders in February and March 2026, citing a Supreme Court order against prolonged “acting” arrangements, forced compliance.