The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed a plea by five states, including Bengal, for creating their own selection systems to appoint the director-general of police instead of following the procedure prescribed by the apex court.

The top court had ruled in 2006 — and iterated last year — that the police chief of every state shall be appointed from a panel of three officers selected by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and the incumbent will have a minimum two-year tenure, irrespective of the age of superannuation.

The court had passed the directives to insulate the police machinery from extraneous influence — an issue that assumes significance in the light of the manner in which the CBI chief was removed.

The separate applications for modification of the 2006 and 2018 orders were moved by Punjab, Bihar, Kerala, Bengal and Haryana.

The Centre had suggested a composite committee of representatives of the Union government and the state government concerned. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the pleas of the Centre and the states.