How many tainted police officers are there in Punjab? On this question of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday, the Single Bench of Justice Ritu Bahri was told by the Punjab Government that the government has filed its reply in the High Court Registry.
On this reply of the government, the Court said that the matter has been heard by the bench of Justice Anupinder Singh Grewal, so the Court refers the case to Justice Grewal for next week hearing.
In the case, the High Court had ordered the additional home secretary of the state to file an affidavit informing how many tainted police personnel or officers are posted at all positions in the police department. Along with the current deployment of all, their full details were also sought.
In this case, petitioner’s counsel, Balbir Saini, submitted that on the court’s order, Punjab Deputy Home Secretary Vijay Kumar had given details of 822 tainted police personnel in an affidavit in the High Court. There are about 18 inspectors, about 24 SIs and about 170 ASIs. The rest are head-constables and constables.
Saini said that it is only lower-level officers. No information was given about the Punjab Police Service (PPS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) officers. To this, the High Court ordered the Additional Home Secretary to give full details of the cases registered against all officers including IPS and PPS, the status of the investigation in the FIR and where these personnel and officers are posted.
The High Court gave this order on a petition challenging the dismissal orders on behalf of the dismissed policeman Surjit Singh.
The court was told that due to an FIR lodged against Surjeet Singh, Moga’s SSP has ordered his sacking, while IG Ferozepur Range reinstated him on November 23, 2018 after the FIR lodged against him. Despite this, he has been dismissed from service.
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In the petition, he had said that there are many such officers in the police against whom criminal cases have been registered and he is still in service. It is discriminatory to dismiss him. The High Court, while hearing the petition, issued notice to all the other defendants, including the Government of Punjab, seeking a reply .