Alleged illegal appointment of SPOs as Constables
Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 4: In a PIL seeking CBI probe into alleged illegal appointments of Special Police Officers (SPOs) as constables from 2018 till March 2020, Division Bench of High Court comprising Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur has directed counsel for the petitioner to assist the court on maintainability of Public Interest Litigation in service matters.
In the PIL the petitioner is seeking details of all the candidates who had been recruited/ appointed on the basis of field operations duties by the Director General of Police (DGP) and Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Anantnag in the last three years. The petitioner submitted that the SSP Anantnag in connivance with the DGP had recruited/ appointed Special Police Officers (SPOs) who had taken no part in field operations as Constables on the basis of operational functions in the districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam.
“By indulging in this act, SSP Anantnag and DGP J&K police have indulged in mass-scale irregularities in appointing them as Constables,” the petitioner stated, adding “neither the Government nor the Police Department had uploaded the appointment orders of these constables on their website, which points to irregularity and arbitrariness on the part of the authorities”.
When the matter was came-up hearing, DB observed, “it appears that the controversy involved in this PIL is regarding the service matter of SPOs as Constables”. Accordingly, DB directed counsel for the petitioner to study the matter if a Public Interest Litigation can be maintained in respect of service matter.
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