The Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court has made the final selection/appointment in SI Recruitment 2021 subject to the final decision to be passed in the petition.
A Single Bench of Justice Subhash Vidyarth passed this order while hearing a petition filed by Ravendra Pratap Singh and 49 Others.
By means of the writ petition, a challenge has been made to the selection process for the posts of Sub-Inspectors (Civil Police), Platoon Commanders (PAC) and Fire Second Officers, which has been initiated by issuing an advertisement dated February 24, 2021.
The Counsel for the petitioners submitted that an FIR was lodged by the S.T.F Gorakhpur on 21.11.2021 against nine named accused persons alleging that in the online written examination conducted as a part of the selection process, a solvers’ gang was active in connivance with the Centre Managers and it was helping in getting the candidates selected in an illegal manner.
He further submitted that as many as 31 FIRs have been lodged in respect of various offences committed during the aforesaid selection process. All the aforesaid FIRs have been lodged by the State agencies. In some FIRs, certain candidates who have been declared successful in the online written examination, have been named as accused persons.
The submission of the counsel for the petitioners is that malpractices and irregularities in the online written examination are so large that it is impossible to filter the tainted and untainted candidates.
The counsel for the petitioners also submitted that once the STF has itself lodged an FIR indicating a nexus between the candidates, Managers of examination centers, the solver gang and the firm which was authorized to conduct the examination, it is apparent that the entire online examination is tainted and the selection process has been conducted against the basic principle of fairness and equality.
The Court observed that the matter requires consideration.
“The opposite parties may file a counter affidavit within a period of four weeks. Rejoinder affidavit, if any, may be filed within a period of one week thereafter.
Keeping in view the aforesaid submissions made by the counsel for the petitioners, it is provided that the selection process for making selection of candidates for being appointed on the posts of Sub-Inspectors (Civil Police), Platoon Commanders (PAC) and Fire Second Officers, which has been initiated by means of the Advertisement issued on 24.02.2021, may go on but the selections and appointments made in furtherance of the selection process, will be subject to the final orders passed in the writ petition”, the order reads.
The Court has fixed the next hearing of the petition on July 18, 2022.