Mumbai: Observing that there cannot be any department with 100 per cent posts filled, the Bombay High Court recently disposed of a suo moto petition, which was taken up following the orders of the Supreme Court to each HC for monitoring vacancies in police departments of all the states.
A bench of Chief Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Bharati Dangre, however, ordered the Director General of Police, Maharashtra to fill 8757 posts, as expeditiously as possible. The bench had taken up this suo moto petition after the SC passed a detailed order asking every HC in India to monitor the vacancies and recruitments of police force, in their jurisdictions.
Accordingly, the DGP office submitted a detailed affidavit spelling out the exact number of vacancies and their plan to overcome the issue. As per the affidavit, from the lowest rung i.e. the post of constable till the highest rung i.e. the DGP, out of the total 2,19,268 posts, 2,07,725 posts have been filled up. It further stated that only five per cent of the total workforce i.e. 11,543 posts were lying vacant.
“Out of the said 11,543, the bulk vacancies being 1955 in the post of police sub-inspector and 8757 for the post of constable, police naik, head constable and assistant police sub inspector,” the affidavit point out In its affidavit, the DGP office further claimed that out of the 1955 posts of sub-inspector, 750 have been recruited and are under training at the Maharashtra Police Academy at Nashik since October 2018.
“Another 650 directly recruited candidates would soon be joining because the Police Sub-Inspector examination-2017 is underway. This would lead to 883 posts of directly recruited police sub-inspectors to be recruited and for which the Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) has been notified to initiate the process,” the affidavit claimed. Having perused the affidavit, CJ Nandrajog said, “Suffice it to state that 100 per cent posts in no department can ever be filled up for the reason retirement, resignation or death would cause vacancies and time would be consumed to fill up the said vacancies.”
“Thus nothing remains to be monitored by this Court in this petition. We are satisfied with the response received and while closing further proceedings would request the DGP, who is in charge of recruitments to ensure that the 8757 posts of constable, police naik, head constable and assistant police sub-inspector are also filled up as expeditiously as possible,” CJ Nandrajog ordered.
