Revert 133 candidates promoted to PSIs back to constabulary: HC to State

Bombay HC directs state to recall 133 constables sent for police sub-inspector training, citing promotion irregularities in LDCE 2016.

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Wednesday directed the state to recall 133 police constables who had been sent to the Maharashtra Police Academy, Nashik for training as police sub-inspectors and revert them to their original posts in constabulary.

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The division bench of Justice AS Chandurkar and Justice Jitendra Jain passed the order while deciding a bunch of petitions arising out of a limited departmental competitive examination (LDCE) conducted in 2016. The court said their “promotion” through LDCE would amount to sending more candidates for training than the 828 seats advertised and therefore liable to be cancelled.

The 133 constables, who had cleared LDCE 2016, had been sent for training on an interim order passed by another bench of the high court on September 25, 2023. The division bench of Justice Sunil Shukre and Justice Firdosh Pooniwalla had said that the 133 constables were denied promotion even after being more meritorious than several of the candidates and were selected for promotion and sent for training.

The 133 constables appeared for LDCE conducted in June 2016, along with scores of others, to fill 828 posts of police sub-inspectors. However, before the process of recruitment could be completed, the high court on July 25, 2017, struck down the state government’s policy of providing reservations to backward category candidates in promotion at every stage.

The matter after that reached the Supreme Court, which upheld the high court order. The general administration department then issued necessary instructions to all the departments. However, the office of DGP still prepared a list of candidates which included those from the reserved category, the candidates claimed.

After a round of another litigation before the high court, the office of DGP corrected the error, but arbitrarily selected candidates for training. The petitioners then moved the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), claiming they were denied promotion despite being more meritorious than several selected candidates. However, MAT rejected their pleas.

The candidates then approached the high court challenging the MAT order. The bench headed by Justice Sunil Shukre accepted their contention and said, “We are of the prima facie view that the candidates who have secured between 245 and 249 out of 400 marks are also eligible for being sent to Maharashtra Police Academy for training for the posts of police sub-inspector.”

By the interim order of September 25, the bench directed the DGP to prepare a list of the candidates who had secured between 245 and 249 marks and send them for training in a special batch within four weeks.