The Supreme Court today accepted the roadmap given by the Jharkhand government for filling up vacancies of over 10,000 constables, 3017 sub-inspectors and 72 deputy superintendents of police and directed the state authorities to strictly adhere to a time-line.
A bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, however, expressed dissatisfaction that the state's principal secretary (home and disaster management) had failed to present a clear picture on vacancies in the police force and the roadmap for filling them up.
"This is not the proper assistance provided by you (Jharkhand). You did not give us the clear picture. The work, which should have taken 15-20 minutes, took us two hours," the bench, which also comprised Justices D Y Chandrachud and Sanjay Kishan Kaul, said after dictating the order.
During the hearing, tye Jharkhand government said that the total cadre strength of constables is 52,943 and 36,636 constables are at present working in the force and there were 16,307 vacancies.
Of 16,307 vacant posts of constables, 6,148 vacancies have been abolished and as a result the total vacancy for constables is now 10,159.
The court recorded the submission of the state government that the process of filling up of vacancies of 7,272 constables was in the final stage and would conclude by May.
The state government has sent a requisition to the Jharkhand State Staff Selection Commission (JSSSC) for initiation of the recruitment process for 2,810 and for advertisements for rest of the 77 post of constable in July.
With regard to the vacancies for sub-inspectors (SIs), it said that 3,017 posts will be filled up through direct recruitment process in 2018-19 and police officers will be ready for serving after completion of one-year training.
Besides the direct recruitment, 1697 posts of SIs would be filled through promotion for which departmental examination would be held and for this rules are being framed, the state government said.
As of now 72 posts of (DySPs) are vacant and out of them, 62 will be filled through promotion and rest 10 would be recruited by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission, it said.
Taking note of the submission, the apex court asked the principal secretary (home and disaster management) and state recruitment boards to file applications if they want any modification in its order.
"In case of any violation of this order and the timeline, the principal secretary (home and deisaster management) shall be liable," the bench said, adding that the copy its order be also sent to the JPSC and the JSSSC for necessary action.
The court would tomorrow consider roadmaps provided by Gujarat, Telangana and Rajasthan on filling up of vacancies in their police force and may pass requisite directions.
Yesterday, the court had pulled up the Bihar government for seeking two years time to appoint 174 stenographers in the police force and had rejecting its roadmap to fill up the vacancies therein.
It had asked the Nitish Kumar government to revise its roadmap and submit a fresh one.
The apex court had on April 24 directed the Uttar Pradesh government to fill over 1.5 lakh police vacancies in fours years, saying this will help in dealing with the law and order problem.
It had 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 in the matter.
The apex court was hearing a 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 that there were around 5.42 lakh vacancies in the police services in the country.
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