State told to fill police promotional posts based on seniority list
Coming to the rescue of over 950 state police personnel, the Madras High Court has directed the state to fill up the promotional vacancies based on the regular seniority list, without reference to the accelerated promotion granted to 752 (STF) personnel involved in the hunt for forest brigand Veerappan and his subsequent killing in 2004.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-01-04 20:56 GMT
Chennai
Clarifying on the issue, Justice T Raja said, “The police department cannot suffer endlessly without filling the promotional posts. Therefore, the authorities are directed to proceed ahead to fill all the vacancies by way of preparing a final seniority list as per the existing Rules, without reference to the accelerated promotion.
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“However, this is subject to the result of the pending writ petitions,” the judge added.
After Veerappan was gunned down in an encounter, the then AIADMK regime announced en masse accelerated promotion for the STF personnel involved. But, it ended up in a controversy and several cases were filed after others in the force realised that their seniority had been adversely affected by the accelerated promotion.
Later, the then DMK government clarified that the accelerated promotion was a one-time affair and the beneficiaries would have to wait their batch to reach their seniority before getting further promotions. This order too was challenged by the then STF personnel in the cadre of DSP and above.
In 2013, a division bench of the court said that accelerated promotion would not mean accelerated seniority. Subsequently, another batch of similar pleas were moved by personnel below the cadre of DSP and secured an interim stay against filling up the regular promotional vacancies.
During the hearing of the present plea, senior counsel Wilson representing the regular police submitted that when a division bench of this court had already rejected the plea of STF cadres in the rank of DSP and above, pleas seeking similar relief by cadres below the rank of DSP should also be rejected.
Concurring with his submissions, the court allowed the government to fill the posts.
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