Police officer promotions: AP told to rectify mistakes before final allocation

HYDERABAD: A division bench of Hyderabad High Court directed AP government to complete the exercise of rectifying the defects in drawing up the seniority list of inspectors of police (civil) and finalising the seniority of Deputy Superintendents of Police for promotion as additional SPs in six months time before final allocations are made between AP and Telangana as per guidelines of the Centre.
The bench was recently passing this order in a batch of petitions filed by the direct recruit DSPs and others seeking a direction to authorities to not proceed with allocations of DSPs between the TS and AP without revising the seniority list issued in GO 108 dated June 23, 2014.

Some of the petitioners contended that the seniority list drawn up vide the impugned GO 108 after bifurcation of the erstwhile combined state, was admittedly fraught with defects and lapses and it cannot be the basis for allocation. They sought making allotments in the cadre of DSPs in terms of Section 77 of the AP Reorganization Act, 2014.After hearing the case and perusing the material on record, the bench felt that finalisation of seniority list of DSPs was essential to make further promotions. “Merely because lapses have occurred in implementation of the applicable rules, it is not open to authorities to sleep over an essential exercise for years and continue with ad hoc arrangements to the detriment of the officers,” the bench observed.

The bench directed AP and its DGP to undertake the exercise and rectify the defects in drawing up the seniority in the feeder category of Inspectors of Police (Civil) and thereafter undertake the exercise of finalising the seniority of DSPs (civil), by including the direct recruit DSPs also, upto June 1, 2014. 
The bench made it clear that final allocations could be made only after completion of the above exercise which shall be completed within six months from the date of receipt of copy of this order. Besides, the bench dismissed the plea of one of the DSP, who was working in TS, seeking benefit of extending the retirement age of 60 years given to AP government employees.