The Supreme Court has directed the home secretaries of all states to submit details of all police vacancies in four weeks. A bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar directed the Centre to issue the order to the states within a week, PTI reported.

“In view of the importance of the issue, we require home secretaries of all the state governments to file affidavits,” the bench said. Home secretaries who fail to submit the required details will be summoned before court to help dispose of the matter, it added.

The court’s order came after it heard a petition claiming that there are currently 5.42 lakh vacancies in police services across the country, because of which the the law and order situation in India was deteriorating.

The three-judge bench found that the Centre filed its last affidavit in the case in January 2015, according to which there were 4.73 lakh vacancies in police services. Several states had not responded to the Supreme Court’s notice for details of vacancies, it observed, according to The Hindu.