Haryana cops’ promotion to IPS level challenged

Two senior officers of the Haryana Police Services (HPS) cadre have challenged the promotion of nine of their colleagues to the Indian Police Service (IPS) level.

Two senior officers of the Haryana Police Services (HPS) cadre have challenged the promotion of nine of their colleagues to the Indian Police Service (IPS) level. The promotions were granted by a six-member committee headed by a member of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC).

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The petitioners include the deputy commissioner of police (DCP) of Gurgaon, Surinder Pal, and DCP (NIT), Faridabad Devender Pal. These two officers are among the 10 HPS officers out of 19 who were denied promotion in the list announced on December last. The state government notified the promotions last week.

The DCPs moved the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) in Delhi and Chandigarh, respectively. “The matter is sub-judice and it will be inappropriate to comment in this regard,” said a senior official of the UPSC.

The Haryana government had sent a list of 19 officers due for promotion in 2012, including the two petitioners. Apart from the UPSC member, the final selection committee included two senior officials from the Union home ministry, chief secretary of Haryana, home secretary of the state and DGP Haryana.

“To promote four (of nine) selective Haryana police officers to IPS level, the committee made unlawful changes to the matrix of their ACRs (annual credential reports) — the basis for selection — of the past five years. Their credentials were not as good as ours but even then they were promoted to IPS,” the petitions stated.

Despite several attempts by HT, none of the three Haryana government officials were available for comment.

“The UPSC is a fair institution and we did not expect such unlawful actions from it. We are determined to get justice and so have moved CAT,” said Pal.

CAT has fixed the date of hearing in these cases on July 26 in Delhi and August 5 in Chandigarh.