IPS Officer recruitment via LCE: Supreme Court upholds Centre’s decision to scrap drive
The three-judge bench said they had no doubt that the decision to scrap IPS recruitment through Limited Competitive Exam was done in ‘larger public interest’
The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Centre’s decision to scrap the Limited Competitive Examination (LCE) conducted via Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the recruitment of Indian Police Service (IPS). The three-judge bench found that the Centre took the decision in ‘larger public interest’.
A bench of Justice Madan B. Lokur, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Deepak Gupta in their decision said that they can foresee a large number of litigations if the government went ahead with the decision to implement recruitment through LCE.
Justice Deepak Gupta said in his judgment, “We are not going into the merits of the issue but, we can easily visualize the huge amount of litigation which will in all probability ensue, where members of the IPS would be litigating against each other. Such litigation would not be in public good and will achieve no higher purpose. In fact, such litigation may also affect the morale of the officers in the IPS.”
Furthermore, the bench observed that the petitioners had no right to claim that the results be declared or that they should be appointed if found meritorious. The reasoning here is that merely because someone has been selected does not give them an indefeasible right of claiming appointment.
History of the case
In 2011, IPS Recruitment was amended to accommodate recruitment through LCE, and in 2012 the UPSC had invited applications for filling up the post of IPS via LCE. The written test and interviews have already been conducted but results have not yet been declared.
The decision of the amendment (to allow IPS recruitment through LCE) was challenged in different high courts and the amendment was upheld in few courts. The Supreme Court transferred all the petitions on the matter that were pending before different high courts to itself after a plea from Union of India.
In January of this year, the Centre stated to the court that it had decided to scrap IPS recruitment through the LCE. One of the main reasons for the decision given by the Centre was surfeit litigations between the candidates recruited via the LCE and those recruited directly. The Centre stated that, in the larger interest of public, it won’t recruit candidates through LCE.
The Centre’s decision was challenged by candidates who had appeared in the LCE examination and interviews.
