19 ‘rejected’ candidates inducted into police force

Nineteen out of the 31 “rejected” candidates have been inducted into the Punjab police force as constables, six years after they were refused admission in the law enforcement agency over their height.

: Nineteen out of the 31 “rejected” candidates have been inducted into the Punjab police force as constables, six years after they were refused admission in the law enforcement agency over their height.

The aspirants were rejected during the 2016 recruitment process. The Punjab police had remeasured their height on December 7, 2021.

The 31 candidates had filed a civil writ petition in the high court seeking remeasuring of their height. The court, disposing of the petitions, had ordered the police department to remeasure the height of the candidates.

Following the court orders, the recruitment panel remeasured their height and inducted 19 of them into the police force.

The aspirants were rejected during the 2016 recruitment process. The police department had remeasured their height on December 7, 2021.

The department has issued a revised merit list after adding the names of 19 candidates and invited objections.

A total of 159 aspirants had moved the court after being rejected by the police department during the 2016 recruitment process for different reasons.

The department had in 2016 invited applications against 4,915 vacancies in the district police and 2,501 in the Punjab Armed Police cadre. The petitioners had stated that the recruitment process was biased, as the department had rejected many of the candidates on the basis of height, despite them meeting the minimum requirement.

The candidates said that they had got their height measured from government institutions and submitted the documents in the court.

According to the office of director general of police (DGP), civil writ petitions regarding change of sub category of scheduled caste are pending in court. Some representations in this regard are also pending in the office. The changes in the sub category have also been incorporated in the revised merit list.

The office also added that 247 vacancies arising due to unwillingness given by the selected candidates, disqualification of candidates on different grounds in the provisional merit list dated May 20, 2017 have also been filled in the present revised merit list.