By TCN News,
New Delhi: Ignoring the High Court case against the Limited Competitive Exam for selection of IPS officers, the Central Government has decided to move ahead with the program and the first IPS Limited Competitive Exam will be held at seven Centres on 20th, 21st and 22nd May, 2012.
To overcome the shortage of IPS rank officers, the government has a plan to recruit 490 IPS officers through this limited exam open only for officers of select ranks in police and armed forces. Through this process, very few Muslim officers could be selected as their presence in police and armed forces is very negligible. And this was what prompted the Zakat Foundation of India to challenge the government’s decision in the court.
ZFI filed a writ petition against the LCE in Delhi High Court. On the first hearing on 21st March Chief Justice A.K. Sikri and his associate judge Justice Rajiv Sahai ordered the Government of India to produce before the court the relevant record. On 28th March the relevant record was produced before the court and ZFI put its arguments opposing the move of the central government. After hearing the ZFI’s points, the court deferred the verdict to 11th April 2012.
On 11th April also, ZFI counsel Ambar Qamaruddin once again drew the attention of the High Court toward the trampling of basic minority rights under article 16 because of the LCE. He also argued that the UPSC’s advice has constitutional significance and deserves to be respected. The strong disagreement against LCE expressed by more than half of the states under the All India Services Act 1951 has vital bearing on the country’s federal edifice. Hence, the LCE needs to be quashed. Instead, the Government should enhance the number of IPS officers selected annually through the Civil Services Exam from the existing 120 to an appropriate figure, say 190, like it has been done in the case of IAS. After hearing the arguments, the court, however, reserved the judgment.