Minorities challenge new police hiring policy in HC

A prominent minority organisation has challenged a policy to recruit police officers through a limited competitive exam in court, claiming this would shut the doors on police service for minorities for the next seven years.

A prominent minority organisation has challenged a policy to recruit police officers through a limited competitive exam in court, claiming this would shut the doors on police service for minorities for the next seven years.

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Three police organisations, apart from the flagship Indian Police Service (IPS) Central Association, have also opposed the move on the grounds that it will disrupt hierarchy and policing quality, making it a controversial decision.

Based on the recommendation of the one-man Kamal Kumar committee, the home ministry had decided to recruit 490 officers to the elite IPS rank by holding a competitive exam open to only serving officials from various central police organisations.

“This limited civil services is open only to select categories, among whom minorities are very few. Therefore it goes against the grain of the 4.5% quota,” Syed Zafar Mahmood, the former Officer on Special Duty on the Sachar Committee and president of Zakat Foundation, who has moved the Delhi High Court, told HT.

According to the Sachar Committee’s findings, Muslims hold fewer than 4% of overall government posts. “Our concern is, why are they not taking the open civil services route,” Mahmood said.

According to documents accessed under the Right to Information Act, the Union Public Service Commission has clearly disapproved of the proposal, Mahmood said. If the government had taken the open civil services route, for each of the 490 posts, there would have been, on an average, 1,000 applicants. A limited recruitment drive means that the number of applicants for each post comes down to just 3. “This reduces scope for employment in a country with high unemployment,” Mahmood said.

The limited recruitment is ostensibly aimed at overcoming shortage of IPS officers. However, the UPSC had said most paramilitary organisations are already understaffed. “To kill a Frankenstein, we may end up creating another,” the IPS Association said in its assessment, a copy of which is with Hindustan Times.