SC's no to stay on UP Govt's move sacking police constables

The Supreme Court today declined to stay the operation of the Allahabad High Court order striking down the decision of the Mayawati government sacking over 18,000 police constables who were recruited by the previous Mulayam Singh government in Uttar Pradesh.

The Mayawati government had sacked over 18,000 of about 22,500 police constables recruited by Mr Yadav’s government, on the ground that the appointments were illegal and the recruits did not even fulfill the eligibility criterion such as the necessary educational qualification and physical fitness test.

A vacation bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Deepak Verma issued notice to the respondents on a petition filed by the Uttar Pradesh government challenging the High Court judgment ordering it to reinstate all the 18,000 constables sacked by it.

The UP government had also pleaded for an interim stay on the contempt of court proceedings initiated by the High Court against the state government.

The apex court also issued notices to respondents Pawan Kumar Sharma and others on the petition seeking to quash the contempt of court proceedings against the UP government.

The Mayawati government had passed the termination order against a large number of police constables on the ground that it was a massive recruitment scandal in which a majority of the constables belonged to one particular community and that senior officers were bribed by the recruits.

The High Court, however, had set aside the government decision on the ground that senior IPS officers, who were involved in the recruitment scandal, had been entrusted with the inquiry in the case in which they themselves were parties.

The apex court while granting four weeks time to the respondents to respond to the petition directed that the same shall be heard immediately after summer vacation in July.