The Centre on Monday approached the Supreme Court against a Delhi High Court judgment staying the cadre allocation policy devised in 2018, by which the best of civil servants got distributed equally across all state cadres without getting concentrated in their preferred home cadres. The court has decided to take up the appeal filed by the Centre on Friday.
The policy — made applicable to those selected through the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted in 2017 — had run into rough weather after the Delhi HC on May 3 set aside the policy and directed the Central government to undertake fresh allocation of cadre based on merit and preference.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta approached the vacation bench of Justices Indira Banerjee and Sanjiv Khanna on Monday requesting for an urgent hearing. He pointed out that those selected to the five zones were in advanced stage of language training that cannot be undone.
The policy would apply to 180 vacancies in Indian Administrative Service (IAS) posts and 150 vacancies in Indian Police Service (IPS). In the HC, several candidates who got selected complained that they were not allocated cadre as per their preference. The allocation policy of September 5, 2017 required the candidates to give preference of cadre at the time of filling the online forms for CSE 2017. On December 3, 2018 and December 19, 2018 cadre allocation for IAS and IPS was drawn out, aggrieved by which some of the selected persons told the HC how less meritorious persons got their choice of cadre while some who refused to give preference got allotted cadres which they never wished to take.
The Centre claimed that most of the selected officers were undergoing second phase of their training and those disgruntled by the policy were only 24 out of 180 IAS candidates and 23 out of 150 IPS candidates. The Centre told the HC that due to merit-cum-preference based allocation, nobody takes up North East or Jammu and Kashmir cadre and hence there is need to give IAS and IPS an all-India character.
But the HC refused to acknowledge this change as it felt that almost 37 per cent of selected candidates were clueless about the change of policy.
Why HC Stayed The Policy
- The allocation policy of September 5, 2017 required the candidates to give preference of cadre at the time of filling the online forms for CSE 2017
- The policy would apply to 180 vacancies in Indian Administrative Service (IAS) posts and 150 vacancies in Indian Police Service (IPS).
- In the HC, several candidates who got selected complained that they were not allocated cadre as per their preference
- Aggrieved officers told the High Court that some of the less meritorious persons were allocated to their choice of cadre
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
 "IPS and IAS officers")
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}