Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Jan 25: The High Court has reprimanded the Government and Police authorities by repeatedly revising and reframing the seniority of its long serving police personnel.
“The repeated attempts by the Government and Police Headquarters to reframe and revise seniority lists decades later amounted to administrative patchwork and could not be used to deny long standing service rights of officers who had been litigating since 1986”, the Division Bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal and Justice Rahul Bharti said while directing to accord service benefits and to the aggrieved 14 candidates till their respective date of retirement and post retirement corresponding retiral benefits to be accordingly extended to them in terms of Govt. Order No. Home-597(P) of 2008 dated 04/09/2008 read with Govt. Order No. Home-508(P) of 2010 dated 29/04/2010
The court, however, made it clear that the service benefits and effects to be accorded to the aggrieved-appellants by reference to Govt. Order No. Home-597(P) of 2008 dated 04/09/2008 shall be notional in terms of pecuniary benefits till their respective superannuation, but in terms of the retiral benefits the appellants shall be entitled to actual benefits by their revised service status.
“Compliance shall be done to the directions being given in favour of the appellants within a period of sixty days from the date of passing of this judgement failing which the respondents No. 1 to 4 shall render themselves answerable and accountable”, the court directed.
Court has further added that there is no doubt that in the name of framing and re-framing the seniority list of Dy.SP and SP post Govt. Order No. Home-597(P) of 2008 dated 04/09/2008 read with Govt. Order No. Home-508(P) of 2010 dated 29/04/2010, both Govt. of UT of J&K as well as PHQ have been indulging in jugglery of things being caught in their own self-created accumulating mess.
“Thus, whatsoever has been done by purported reference to the constitution and reconstitution of committees leading to passing of series of orders in 2019 and in 2020, the same is nothing but a patchwork done to give semblance of amend being made to the situation otherwise it is incomprehensible that even in year 2020, the seniority of Dy. SP and SP as obtained in 2000 is being purportedly set to correction”, read the judgement.
The root of decades old litigation is the basis of an order issued by PHQ on 03/12/1985, whereby a number of pre-1979 appointed ASIs, otherwise already promoted in course of time as SI after the appointment of the appellants as SI, came to be accorded promotional benefit to posts of Sub Inspector with retrospective effect from 25/04/1978 thereby not only making them purportedly overnight seniors as SI to the appellants, direct recruit SI of 1979, but also poised for promotion as Inspectors ahead of 1979 directly appointed SIs.
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