SC directs UP to fill 1.5 lakh vacant police posts by 2021

The Supreme Court today directed Uttar Pradesh government to fill over 1.5 lakh police vacancies in the state in fours years, saying filling up of the posts will help in dealing with the law and order problem.
It also directed the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to fill up about 45,000 such vacancies in a time- bound manner, while expressing dissatisfaction with the responses of West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand in the matter.
The apex court directed the UP government to start filling up the currently 1,01,619 vacant posts in the police and asked the state government to start recruiting 30,000 constables every year from August 17 till August 2020, apart from filling up of 11,376 posts of Sub-Inspector.

It directed that 3,200 posts of Sub-Inspector should be filled annually from January 2018 till January 2021, apart from filling up the promotional posts every year.
The apex court also accepted the roadmaps of filling up of police vacancies in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka and asked them to complete the process of recruitment in a time-bound manner.
"If police vacancies are filled up, it will help in dealing with several law and order problems. You need to fill up the vacancies and do the recruitment in time-bound manner," a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud said.

The bench accepted the roadmap given by the three states to fill up the vacancies and sought similar fresh road maps from Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

It also asked the Home Secretaries of Gujarat, Telangana and Rajasthan to be personally present on May 1 and suggest the roadmap to fill up over 50,000 police vacancies.
With regard to Uttar Pradesh, the apex court said the officials in the Police Recruitment Board after the issuance of notification for recruitment of constables and Sub- Inspectors for one cycle shall not be changed mid-stream or transferred till the process ends, so that they can be held accountable personally.

"For 3,200 sub-inspectors the advertisement shall be issued in January 2018, result shall be declared in October and training should be completed by January next following year.
"In so far as constables are concerned which are to be filled by direct recruitment 30,000 annually and the first notification should be issued in August 2017, results shall be declared in July 2018 and training be completed in September 2019," the bench said while approving recruitment process roadmap of the state government.
With regard to vacancies in Karnataka (24,889) and Tamil Nadu (19,803) police, the apex court asked them to fill the vacant posts in a time-bound manner starting this year, besides filling up the promotional posts.

The bench was not satisified with the responses of West Bengal, Bihar governments whose Home Secretaries were summoned by the apex court on April 17 and asked them to furnish detailed roadmaps for filling up of the long pending vacancies by May 1.
On April 17, apex court had sought personal appearance of the Home Secretaries or authorised joint secretaries of six states, including Uttar Pradesh, next week to provide a definite roadmap to fill up the vacancies in the states' police forces.
It had expressed dismay over the huge backlog in the vacancies in police departments of the states, which also include Jharkhand, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

It had said that Uttar Pradesh has 1.51 lakh vacancies, West Bengal has 37,325, Karnataka has 24,899, Jharkhand 26,303, Bihar 34,500 and Tamil Nadu has 19,803 posts vacant.
Earlier, the court had directed the Home Secretaries of all the states to file affidavits giving details of vacancies in police services at all levels.
The apex court was hearing the 2013 petition which claimed that law and order situation in the country was deteriorating due to a large number of vacancies in police services at all levels across all states.
The petitioner had claimed before the bench that there were around 5.42 lakh vacancies in the police services across the country.