The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to treat as representation a petition by group of officers of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) raising the issue of acute stagnation suffered by Directly Appointed Assistant Commandants.
A Bench of Justices Manmohan and Asha Menon said, “We direct that the respondent committee while carrying out the cadre review exercise would consider the present writ petition as a representation and take the same into account.”
The petition was filed by the officers working in the rank of Assistant Commandant in Executive Cadre in the CRPF. They contended that that “as on date, they have put more than 10 years of service [2008 UPSC Notification Batch] and nine years of service [2009 UPSC notification batch] but have not earned any promotion till date”.
They pointed out that going by the “current calculations/scenario made after determining number of vacancies, superannuation and promotion it comes to fore that the petitioners would not be getting promotion for next five-six years or even more”.
More than 15 years
The officers contended that they “may get their first promotion only after putting more than 15 years or more of service despite working in Executive Cadre [an organised Group A Service] which is the main pillar and main workhorse on which all other auxiliary branches of the CRPF sustain”.
The plea further said the officer “face stagnation in avenues vis-à-vis their counterparts in other Armed Forces viz. ITBP [Indo Tibetan Border Police], SSB [Sashastra Seema Bal], CISF [Central Industrial Security Force] and also vis-à-vis their counterparts in other cadres of the CRPF”.
The plea stated that the next cadre review of CRPF is slated to be completed in June, 2021. Some of the officers made representation to the Director General, CRPF highlighting the acute stagnation faced by directly appointed Assistant Commandants belonging to Executive cadre and made suggestions for cadre review which would help in alleviating genuine grievances faced by them. However, the officers have not received any response, the plea said.
Acting on the plea, the High Court, in its March 15 order, said: “While carrying out the Cadre review, the respondent-Committee shall focus on the aforesaid problems and give reasons if the suggestions put forth by the petitioners are not accepted”.
