SC orders Punjab police to fix seniority of officers

The Supreme Court on Friday issued directives to the Punjab police chief, home secretary of the province and secretary Establishment Division to fix seniority of all the police officers who were given out-of-turn promotion. A 5-member bench led by Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, after hearing the arguments of all the parties on December 14, had reserved the judgement in response to review petitions about 2 dozen police officers who were affected by the apex court's decision of January 26, 2016 in the matter.
Announcing its 87-page verdict in the matter, the bench dismissed all the review petitions and asked the competent authority to streamline the service structure of the police by redressing the heart burning and dismay of the police officials at the hands of high-ups, who abuse their discretion in violation of the Police Rules. It is pertinent to mention that earlier during the hearing of out-of-turn police promotion case, Punjab police had informed the Supreme Court that it has withdrawn 10,884 out-of-turn promotions of different rank officers.
The Court said the orders of withdrawal of out-of-turn promotion passed by the department/competent authority shall be recalled against the police officers who had earned out-of-turn promotions, pursuant to the judgements of superior Courts/Service Tribunals.
The court said that the Police Rules are abused by the authorities with regard to termination of probation and not sending the police officials to different examinations/courses under Chapter XIII of the Police Rules on their turn. The bench said that the Police Rules are applicable both to the Sindh Police and the Punjab Police saying, "We are cognisant of the fact that delay in promotion of police officials affect their morale as they work hard in performing their duties."
The Supreme Court said in the judgement that in a series of verdicts it has declared out-of-turn promotions as being unconstitutional, un-Islamic. The verdict pointed out that the Punjab government has withdrawn all out-of-turn promotions earned by the police officials, in terms of Section 8-A of Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974.
It has been observed in the judgement that a cherry picking is made in the case of selecting police personnel for police training or practical training despite the fact they have completed their required period to be eligible for such trainings, which amounts to denying them of timely promotion to the next scale.
"Hence, we direct that in future, competent authority shall ensure that the police personnel who have completed their required period to be eligible for trainings shall be forthwith sent for the training; and in case such police officials are bypassed for such trainings on account of default by the department, or to extend a favour to the junior or negligence by the authority concerned, their inter se seniority and the accompanying financial entitlements shall not be effected on account of their late joining or completion of training," the verdict said.