A bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw said, "Once a policy decision is taken based on expert advice and all the aspects have been thrashed out, it cannot be treated as without application of mind or arbitrary. Such functions are best left for the executive and the courts should not interfere with the same."
"The decision taken cannot be nullified by the court or rendered invalid merely on the ground that it is not very wise decision and there were better alternatives," the court said.
The Centre's move to appoint IPS officer through special examination had been challenged by Zakat Foundation of India, a civil society. It had said that the Union Home Ministry has taken the decision to conduct the Limited Competitive Examination (LCE) annually to recruit additional IPS officers, despite objections from Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) which holds the civil services examinations.
The court accepted the central government's argument that the matter was discussed at all levels including UPSC, which expressed its willingness to recruit 200 IPS officers per year from 2012, but agreed with the government that it lacked the infrastructure to train a batch of 200 IPS recruits at a time. (MORE) PTI PNM AKI