Government notifies CAPF Act amid pending challenge in Supreme Court

The Ministry of Home Affairs notified that the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026, will come into force from Thursday (October 8, 2026), nearly five months after the legislation was passed by Parliament, even as its constitutional validity is under challenge before the Supreme Court.

Serving CAPF officers have challenged the law, which will impact cadre management and the deputation of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers to senior positions in the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs). Among them is Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Assistant Commandant Bibhor Kumar Singh, a Shaurya Chakra awardee who lost both his legs in an anti-Maoist operation in Bihar in 2022 and is the lead petitioner in one of the cases.

“In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Central Armed Police Forces (General Administration) Act, 2026 (9 of 2026), the Central Government hereby appoints the 08th day of October, 2026, as the date on which the provisions of the said Act shall come into force,” said the notification.

The notification assumes significance as the new law has emerged as a key issue in separate contempt proceedings concerning the implementation of the Supreme Court’s May 23, 2025, judgment on cadre issues in the CAPFs.

On September 30, a Bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan decided to hear the contempt petitions along with three writ petitions challenging the validity of the CAPF Act on October 15.

The contempt proceedings arise from allegations that the Union government has not fully implemented the May 2025 judgment, in which the Supreme Court directed that deputation of IPS officers to senior posts in the CAPFs be progressively reduced.

The contempt petitioners told the court that the new Act did not cover several directions of the 2025 judgment and, therefore, there was no reason to defer the contempt proceedings until November 18, which had earlier been fixed as the returnable date in the writ petitions challenging the legislation.