Uttar Pradesh court reinstates 18,000 dismissed policemen

Allahabad, Dec 8 (IANS) The Allahabad High Court Monday ordered reinstatement of 18,000 policemen whose services were terminated by the Mayawati government shortly after she assumed office in 2007. A single-judge bench of Justice D.P.Singh, who was hearing the case and kept his judgement reserved for the past four months, gave the verdict Monday afternoon. Recruited during the previous regime headed by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the policemen became victims of the political duel between the two rivals. Soon after she assumed office in May 2007, Chief Minister Mayawati instituted a high-level probe into alleged irregularities in the recruitments. The inquiry found large-scale irregularities in the recruitment process, following which the government decided to terminate the services of as many as 18,000 of the 20,000 new recruits. While the victims filed a writ petition against the move, the government decided to reinstate the 34 police officers who were suspended for their role in making the recruitments. The court, allowing the petition, directed the state government to restore the services of the dismissed policemen. The state government has, however, not been in mood to relent and proposes to move a review petition before a larger division bench of the same court. 'We will file an appeal against the order of the honourable court,' Principal Home Secretary Kunwar Fateh Bahadur told reporters in Lucknow. State government chief standing counsel Devendra Upadhaya said: 'Since the order was issued by a single judge, we will first move our appeal before a division bench.' Meanwhile, there was much jubilation in the Samajwadi Party camp over the court order. 'Our stand has been vindicated. We always maintained that the dismissal of these poor policemen was not only unfair but illegal,' stressed state Samajwadi Party chief Shivpal Yadav, who was largely responsible for the recruitments in his capacity as a minister in his elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav's regime.

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