Allahabad HC quashes dismissal of 18,000 policemen

ALLAHABAD: In a major setback to the BSP Government in Uttar Pradesh, the Allahabad High Court on Monday set aside the dismissal of 18,000 policemen, who were sacked on the grounds of alleged irregularities.
    
The order was passed by Justice D P Singh, who allowed a writ petition filed by Pawan Kumar and others, challenging their dismissal on various grounds. The recruitments were made by the previous Samajwadi Party Government.
    
Interestingly, another bench of the high court, in its June 5 order this year, had ordered a CBI inquiry into the police recruitment exam.
    
The state government is likely to file an appeal against Monday's order.
    
Scenes of jubilation were seen outside the high court as the dismissed policemen shouted "Justice has been done".     

The Mayawati Government, soon after assuming power in May last year, had ordered an inquiry in the recruitments and later canceled the appointments on the grounds of alleged irregularities in the conduct of tests, forgery of examination records, political interference and corruption.
    
The court noted that "none of the petitioners were served notice or were involved in an inquiry conducted by the government or heard at any time before their appointments were canceled."
    
It was submitted by the petitioners that the irregularities or discrepancies found in various recruitments were only a "handful," but no effort was made to separate the good from the tainted.

The court said, "Such an exercise should have been undertaken as the decision affected the lives of more than 18,000 selected constables and their families. The enormity of such an exercise should not be a ground to bypass it".
    
The court also said, "commonsense justice" or "fair play in action" require that an inquiry should have been undertaken against the officers responsible for this and only if it was proved by law that the lowly constables should have been dismissed".
    
The court also put a question: "What if tomorrow it is found that the irregularities were not deliberate but bona fide 'human error.'"

The court said, "it cannot be said thatirregularities or discrepancies were of such large proportion where there was no other option except to cancel the entire recruitment itself... Untainted selection could have been identified, if there was a will to do so."

The court also took exception to the inclusion of Additional Director General of Police Shailja Kant Misra and DIG Javed Akhtar in the committee -- the Misra Committee -- constituted to inquire into alleged corruption, discrimination and violation of the selection norms, as they had themselves been part of the selection process.

The court observed, "the requirement of fairness demands that the character of the body inquiring into an issue, which may affect individual rights, should be above board. Official bias is likely to arise when the person inquiring into the matter has a previous or personal knowledge of the material facts of the case before him."

"The necessity of inclusion of the two individuals (ADGP and DIG) in the inquiry has not been demonstrated before the court. The composition of the Misra Committee itself was less than fair and vitiated."

The high court also observed that the speed with which the government acted on the complaint of petitioners in ordering the inquiry, completing it and terminating their services in about three months' time, was "completely lacking in the case of the officers" responsible for the recruitment. "Even after more than five months, the inquiry against them (officials) stands where it stood on the date of appointing the inquiry officer," the court said.