Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 1: A Full Bench of Central Administrative Tribunal comprising its Chairman Justice L Narasimha Reddy, Administartive Members Bidisha Banerjee and A K Bishnoi, while deciding the controversy over the promotion of Executive Police and Armed Police, has directed Government to consider the feasibility of framing the Recruitment Rules for the posts of Sub Inspectors and Inspectors in various wings of the Jammu & Kashmir Police.
Moreover, it has directed for framing of Rules pertaining to the maintenance of the common seniority list for Inspectors duly maintaining proper ratio between Executive Wing and Armed Wing.
“The exercise, if undertaken, shall be completed within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order”, the CAT further directed.
The applicants in the petitions before the CAT were appointed as Sub Inspectors (SIs) in Executive Wing (EW) of Jammu & Kashmir Police in the year 1995. The case before the CAT was that the private respondents, who were appointed as SIs in the year 1998, got promotion to the post of Inspector in the year 2005, whereas, the applicants, who were appointed as SIs in EW in the year 1995, got promotion as Inspector in the year 2007.
The applicants contended that in the combined seniority list of Inspectors, which is maintained for promotion to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police, the names of the Inspectors from EW as well as AW are arranged only on the basis of the date of promotion to the post of Inspector and in the process, the private respondents were placed above them enbloc.
They further contended that the procedure adopted by the Government is contrary to Rule 172 of the Jammu & Kashmir Police Rules. According to them, the entire police of the State is one Unit and there was absolutely no basis for maintaining separate seniority lists for Inspectors, or for that matter SIs, of Eexctuive Wing on the one hand and Armed Wing on the other.
After hearing both the sides, the CAT observed, “the basic plea of the applicants is that the entire Jammu & Kashmir of Police is one Unit and the official respondents were under obligation to prepare and maintain the common seniority list of SIs as well as Inspectors for both the Wings”.
“We have already mentioned that the State did not frame any Rules in this behalf. It was mostly on the basis of the long practice or Executive instructions”, the CAT said, adding “it is true that under Rule 172 of the Police Rules, the method of preparation of seniority list, etc. is provided. However, no steps seem to have been taken to amend the Rules after the AW was created through Section 6 of the Jammu & Kashmir Police Act, 1960”.
The CAT was of the view that whatever may be the perception about the method of maintenance of separate seniority lists and making promotions in the absence of Rules, at least when the litigation started decades ago, the Government ought to have framed the Rules, governing the respective posts.
“There was a clear default on the part of the Government and that, in turn, has given rise to the avoidable litigation. Though it cannot be said that any illegality has taken place in the promotions of the applicants on the one hand and the private respondents on the other, at the relevant point of time, the Government needs to step in with a set of Rules bringing about complete clarity on the issue”, the CAT said.
“The absence of Rules in the context of maintenance of seniority lists, at least when there is a convergence of two different categories, cannot be just or equitable. It would result in en bloc promotions of Inspectors of only one category to the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police at a given point of time to the detriment of the other categories”, the CAT said, adding “the same situation would arise some time later and the category, which was beneficial at one point of time, would be at the receiving end at a subsequent stage. This would result in serious dissatisfaction in the Police force”.
“A decent mechanism to intersperse the vacancies for the respective categories, depending upon the cadre strength of each of them, would bring about a perfect system”, the CAT said.
With these observations, CAT dismissed petitions and directed the Government to consider the feasibility of framing the Recruitment Rules for the posts of Sub Inspector and Inspector in various wings of the Jammu & Kashmir Police as well as the Rules pertaining to the maintenance of common seniority list for Inspectors, duly maintaining proper ratio between Executive Wing and Armed Wing.
Follow our WhatsApp channel