Ambitious IPS recruitment runs into trouble

New Delhi, Sept 15: The Centre's plan to laterally induct additional officers into the Indian Police Service by deploying meritorious junior serving uniformed officers has run into rough weather as final results are on hold even an year after 255 persons were selected for the job by UPSC.

The final results of the maiden subsidiary IPS cadre exam have been caught in litigation.

The plan to put to test young police, paramilitary and Army officers through a written test and interview by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) was taken by the then Home Minister P Chidambaram after finding a large number of vacancies in various cadres of IPS which has been hampering functioning of police forces.

The final results were declared by the UPSC in July last year and after shortlisting 255 candidates subsequently, the results are stuck as there are more than 75 court cases pending in various courts in respect of this exam and the results are not expected in the next six months too.

The final results were declared by the UPSC in July last year

"The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) is in constant touch with the UPSC on this subject but there are close to 75 cases pending in various courts and that is holding up the results. There seems to be no breakthrough forthcoming in the next few months," a senior official privy to the development said.

Frustrated by the delay in results, a number of officers, who have written this examination, told PTI that they are mulling to approach the Supreme Court with a PIL alleging the delay in declaration of results is illegal as the last case in this regard was quashed by the Guwahati High Court on May 14, this year paving way for the declaration of results.

The Guwahati HC had quashed a previous order of the Central Administrative Tribunal bench (Guwahati) which has earlier cancelled the rules that were framed for holding the Limited Competitive Examination (LCE) as prepared by the MHA for induction of the serving officers into the IPS.

"No authority, neither the MHA nor UPSC, is thinking about the future of these officials who have appeared in the LCE and subsequently made the final cut.

It is not only demoralising for them but also vitiates the ambitious programme of the government to supplement the country's top police cadre," an official, who undertook the maiden exam last year, said.

The UPSC had published the notification for this exam in March 2012 and officers of Armed forces, central paramilitary forces and state police services, having minimum five years of service experience as officers, were stipulated as eligible to apply.

The LCE rules had mandated to keep the maximum age limit of the candidates at 35 years to keep the profile young.

PTI