Don't fill up SAG posts in ITBP, BSF, CRPF without informing court: HC to Centre

The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre not to fill via deputation the senior administrative grade (SAG) level posts, like that of IG and DIG, in the ITBP, BSF and CRPF without informing it in advance. The direction by a bench of Justices S Muralidhar and Talwant Singh has been issued in several petitions which have opposed filling up of the top posts, including newly created ones, in these central armed police forces (CAPFs) by deputation.

The petitioners, who are group 'A' officers of Executive Cadre in the three CAPFs, have in their pleas filed through advocate Ankur Chhibber urged the court to order that these posts be filled up by cadre officers. The pleas by Tarun Kumar Bannerjee of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Mahendra Singh Deo from Border Security Force (BSF) and Radhe Mohan Meena from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) have also sought a cadre strength review of their respective CAPFs as is done for other Group 'A' Central Civil Services.

In their pleas they have said that "the main objective of a cadre review is to strike a healthy balance between the functional requirements and career progression of Officers, as well as to fulfil aspirations of cadre officer's and therefore, periodically reviewing of cadre strength is an important cadre management function as it plays a vital role in the smooth functioning of the service and keeping up the morale of its members". They have contended that over the years, sufficient cadre reviews of the CAPFs had not been carried out by the government.

They have also alleged that despite the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court holding the CAPFs as organised services, the government has proposed to carry out their cadre review by treating them as a non-organised service. According to the petitioners, presently 20 per cent of the DIG rank posts and 50 per cent of the IG ranks are being filled by deputation as the CAPFs are being treated as a non-organised service.

The high court has listed all the petitions for further hearing on January 9, 2020.

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