Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jammu Bench today quashed the selection list of Sub-Inspectors in the Jammu and Kashmir Police. “The selection list of Sub-Inspector (Executive and Armed) in J&K Police prepared in pursuance to advertisement number Pers A-400/2016/75303-403 of December 30, 2016 is quashed and set aside,” reads an order of the CAT.
The double bench of CAT, consisting of Anand Mathur and Rakesh Sagar Jain, directed the official respondents to prepare the selection list afresh in accordance with law and rules within the earliest period possible from the date of receipt of certificated copy of the order.
The CAT bench observed that the fallacy in the selection procedure adopted by the official respondents can be best demonstrated by the fact that 275 vacancies were advertised in the Executive Wing in open merit wherein 310 persons have been selected.
“The extra selection of 35 candidates belongs to the other categories and vacancies in these categories have been correspondingly reduced. The procedure adopted by the official respondents is in violation of the settled law that the entire reservation quota will be intact and available in addition to those selected under open competition category,” the CAT observed in the order.
It further observed that the selection has not been prepared in accordance with rules and settled law and the validity of the selection lists prepared in pursuance to advertisement notice of Pers-A-400/2016/75303-403 of December 30, 2016 cannot be held up.
Pertinently, the J&K Police had notified 482 posts including 275 under Open Merit, 96 under RBA category, 48 under Schedule Tribe category, 39 under Schedule Caste category, 15 under ALC, and 9 under OSC in the Executive Wing of the police department.
Similarly, 176 vacancies were notified in Armed Police including 100 open merit, 35 RBA category, 18 ST category, 15 SC category, 5 under ALC and 3 under OCS category.
However, 310 candidates were recruited in OM in the Executive Wing of J&K Police as Sub Inspectors even as the notified posts were 275, while the recruited candidates under RBA category reduced to 77 through 96 posts were notified for the recruitment. Of 48 advertised posts under ST category, 41 were recruited, 35 were recruited against 39 notified vacant posts, 12 were recruited out of 15 vacant posts under ALC category and 7 were recruited as Sub Inspectors against 9 vacant posts which were notified by the police department.
In Armed Police, the figures show that 100 vacant posts were advertised and 65 were selected during recruitment process as Sub Inspectors in Open Merit, out of 54 vacant posts under RBA category, 54 were recruited, under ST category 25 were selected against the advertised 18 posts, under SC category 19 were selected against the 15 advertised posts, under ALC category 8 were selected against the advertised 5 posts, and 5 were recruited under OSC category against the 3 advertised posts.