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Supreme Court quashes orders of Allahabad High Court in recruitment of constables in PAC

The Supreme Court has set aside the orders passed by the Allahabad High Court in the matter of recruitment of police constables in the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC), saying that the recruitment made by a competent authority The process would be meaningless without a time limit. The apex court allowed the petitions filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and others against the August 2019 order passed by the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court. A division bench of the High Court had upheld an order of a single judge.

The Single Bench of the Allahabad High Court had directed the authorities to allow the petitioner (who was one of the candidates in the recruitment process) to appear for document verification and physical fitness test for the post of constable as per the recruitment advertised in the year 2015. To be given Hearing the petitions filed by the Uttar Pradesh government and others against the order, a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and AS Bopanna of the Supreme Court observed that the recruitment process carried out by the competent authorities would be meaningless without the time limit. This will also affect the next recruitment process as the number of vacancies will not be fixed for the next process.

The Supreme Court in its judgment said that the recruitment process started in 2015 and the verification of documents along with physical fitness test was conducted in 2018. As per the order of Allahabad High Court many candidates were allowed to appear in the recruitment process who had participated in the beginning of January 2019. Since sufficient time has elapsed thereafter, it would not be appropriate to make an exception in the case of the respondent at this stage. The Supreme Court held that the findings of the Single Bench as well as the Division Bench of the High Court were not justified.

In its judgment, the bench observed that the authorities had published an advertisement in 2015 for the recruitment of police constables by direct recruitment in the PAC. One of the candidates who had approached the High Court had applied as per the advertisement in which a preliminary fitness test was also conducted. Verification of documents was to be done and candidates had to undergo a physical fitness test to complete the selection process. After that the candidate had to go to the next stage of the recruitment process. One of the petitioners had moved the High Court claiming that he had not appeared for physical fitness test and verification of documents due to non-receipt of written communication from the authorities concerned.
Officials had said that the candidates who were to appear for physical efficiency test and document verification were informed by issuing SMS on mobile phones on the number given in the application. Many candidates who received such SMS had participated in the process of Documents Verification and Physical Fitness Test. The petitioner alleged that he could not appear in the process as the authorities had not informed him about the recruitment process through post. The petitioner had also alleged that the authorities had not followed the requirement as required under the Uttar Pradesh (Civil Police) Constable and Head Constable Rules 2008 which required issuance of a call letter.