HC upholds selection of 700 police SIs

Chennai, Mar 28 (UNI) The Madras High Court today upheld the selection of nearly 700 police Sub-Inspectors (SIs) by the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board during March last year.

A Division Bench comprising Justices S J Mukhopadhaya and M Venugopal upheld the selection and dismissed a batch of writ appeals filed by the non-selected candidates, including one M Arul Manimaran, a grade-II police constable.

Dismissing the petitions, the Bench observed that there was no malpractices in the selection process.

''There were no malpractices. The selections were made purely on merit and the selected candidates were undergoing training,'' it added.

The writ appeal was filed after the single bench, headed by Justice K Venkatraman, had on November 11 last upheld the selection process held in March last year.

In their writ appeal, they contended that till 1979, the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) was the selection authority for the post of SIs.

Thereafter it was conducted by the State Director General of Police after the formation of Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board in 1991, which was only a substitute for TNPSC and the Board has its own procedure in conducting the examinations.

While selection, the Recruitment Board had not followed the well-established procedures, the petitioner claimed.

Alleging that there were huge malpractices in the selection, especially in awarding marks in the interview, the petitioners sought to quash the selection list and include their names in the final list.

UNI XR-GV AJ KD GC2120