Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 28: In a significant judgment giving breather to more than 400 Deputy Superintendents of Police working on incharge basis/OPG since 1999, High Court today directed Principal Secretary Home and Director General of Police to complete the process of finalizing the seniority of DySPs as pointed out by the High Powered Committee headed by Director General Prisons S K Mishra within 3 months after providing opportunity to all the stake holders to file objections.
These directions were passed in a writ petition titled Ashok Kumar Chib and others Versus State of J&K and Others seeking directions to the Home Department for fixation of their seniority and regularization of services as DySPs from the date of their incharge arrangement and for further promotion /placement as Selection Grade DySPs and Superintendents of Police.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocate Irfan Mohd Khan appearing for the petitioners whereas Senior AAG W S Nargal for Home Department and Advocate F A Natnoo for J&K PSC, Justice Tashi Rabstan also directed that in case the seniority of the DySPs is not fixed within the period of 3 months in that eventuality the Home Department shall not make any promotion/ incharge arrangement/ placement to the higher post—Selection Grade DySPs and SPs provided there is no other legal impediment.
The High Court further directed that J&K PSC upon receiving the recommendations from Home Department shall consider and process the regularization of the petitioners and other eligible officers for the post of DySPs and to any other higher posts within 2 months from the date of receipt of recommendations.
Earlier, when the writ petition filed by DySPs (OPG) came up for hearing, Advocate Ahmed with Advocate Irfan Khan drew the attention of the court towards the Action Taken Report (ATR) filed by Principal Secretary Home wherein the copy of the minutes of the meeting chaired by the Chairman S K Mishra along with its conclusions were enclosed.
He submitted that the High Powered Committee headed by S K Mishra has concluded that unless and until the seniority of the DySPs is fixed and settled as on 31.07.1999 the process of identification of vacancies of DySPs in both promotion/direct quota cannot be worked out.
He vociferously argued that on one hand the seniority of the DySPs is not settled as on 31.07.1999 and on the other hand the Home Department is issuing various orders placing/promoting the junior of the petitioners to the next higher post of DySPs Selection Grade and Superintendent of Police.
“The direct recruits up to 2004 have already been placed as SPs and further the Home Department is contemplating the placement of 2008 batch also against the posts of SPs.
The petitioners are working since 1999 under extreme circumstances without any monetary benefits and the number of such DySPs (OPG) is more than 400 and all of them are awaiting fixation of their seniority /regularization”, he said, adding “on the other hand the juniors to the petitioners have scaled march and the petitioners have been discriminated solely for the reason that the State Government has been brazenly favoring the direct recruits”.
Senior AAG W S Nargal appearing for the Home Department stated at bar that the matter was under active consideration for fixation of seniority of the DySPs in view of the direction of Srinagar Wing dated 02.02.2017 passed in SWP No. 139/2016. Further Senior AAG W S Nargal fairly stated that some more time was required to finalize the seniority list of DySPs.
At this stage Advocate Ahmed drew the attention of the court towards fresh application wherein certain orders were placed on record indicating that Home Department is continuously placing/promoting the direct quota officers against the higher posts of SPs.
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