PANAJI
Months after the High Court of Bombay at Goa ordered the reversion of six Police Inspectors promoting government order, the State has restored the six officiating/ad-hoc Police Inspectors to this promoted rank, effectively reversing the earlier demotion order.
In January 2026, Goa police had reverted six officers from the rank of Police Inspector (PI) to their substantive post of Police Sub-Inspector (PSI), pending complete exoneration or acquittal in the criminal cases against them. The move came in the wake of directions issued by the High Court in July 2025 while hearing a writ petition filed by PSI Anand Narvekar.
However, in deciding the reversal, the government is learnt to have accepted representations made by the six officers and reinstated them as PIs.
The officers whose promotions are restored include Terence Vaz, Sandhya Gupta, Sunil Gudlar, Vilesh Durbhatkar, Sushant Gawas, and Rahul Dhamsekar.
PSI Narvekar had challenged the denial of his promotion allegedly solely because of a pending criminal case against him.
In his plea, Narvekar pointed out that in 2022, the Director General of Police had promoted four PSIs as PIs with a condition that the promotions would remain subject to the final outcome of the criminal cases registered against them and that they would be reverted in the event of conviction.
During the hearing, the High Court observed that promoting police officers during the pendency of criminal proceedings was “not an approach to be appreciated,” particularly in a disciplined force such as the police.
In July 2025, the court directed authorities to open the sealed cover pertaining to Narvekar’s case and said that if he was found suitable, he should be granted officiating promotion on par with other PSIs who had been promoted despite pending criminal cases.
Following the court order, Goa Police issued the January 2026 order demoting the six officers.
