Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Sept 17: The Supreme Court has dismissed the pleas of J&K Government challenging the judgment of the Division Bench of High Court with regard to the absorption of hundreds of constables (operators) in J&K Police whose services were terminated after writ court directions way back in 2014.
Follow the Daily Excelsior channel on WhatsApp
The 10-year old 5th round of litigation came to an end after the Supreme Court dismissed the SLP of Government of J&K by recording that the aggrieved candidates be considered for the post in question subject to their suitability’
“The Division Bench is very precise and discreet in issuing the direction that the private respondents of the referred writ petitions would only be considered subject to their suitability and on attaining the benchmark in terms of the performance in the recruitment process pursuant to advertisement dated 09.03.2007 which aspect will have to be considered and decided by the petitioner”, the bench of Supreme court comprising Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta said.
The High Court had directed that 151 candidates serving as Wireless Assistants in the departments shall forthwith be appointed as constables (operator) on regular basis by adjusting against the vacant posts of constables (operator) and their appointments shall be given effect notionally from the date they were initially appointed as constables (operator), without any back wages.
It was further made clear that the services of those persons who are already appointed as constables (operator) after the services of these candidates were terminated vide order dated 19.01.2017 will remain undisturbed and will be en-bloc senior to the appellant-aggrieved candidates in the seniority of the constables (operator) should be based on the state level merit list as this would truly reflect the comparative merit of the candidates, irrespective of the fact that they may be appointed on different dates and in different districts.
The said list was prepared in terms of the direction issued by the Single Judge in its judgment dated 09.05.2014 after the whole selection list of about 1126 candidates was quashed with the direction to redraw the select list.
“In that view of the matter, we are not inclined to interfere with the impugned orders passed by the High Court. Accordingly, the Special Leave Petitions are dismissed”, the Supreme Court concluded.
The issue involved in SLP before the apex court was related to the validity of the appointments made to the posts of constables (operator) in the districts, based on district-wise select lists in contradistinction to the rival contention that the appointments should have been made based on State level select list as the advertisement did not provide for appointment by preparing district wise merit lists.
The appellant-aggrieved candidates were initially appointed as constables (operator) as per the merit list/select list prepared district-wise, in terms of an advertisement issued on 09.03.2007, whose appointments were successfully challenged by the candidates who were not shown in the select list primarily on the ground that appointments to these posts were to be made on the basis of the select list prepared at the State level and not by preparing district wise select list as had been done.
Though the number of vacancies were not indicated in the advertisement, during the initial round of litigation challenging the aforesaid appointments of the appellants, the Official Respondents informed the court that the total number of posts of constables (operator) that were sought to be filled up was 1126, but the Select List was prepared consisting of 925 candidates.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
