Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court dismissed a challenge to the process of promoting state police officers to the Indian Police Service (IPS), ruling that the selection committee had acted fairly and within its mandate.
A bench of Chief Justice Aparesh Kumar Singh and Justice GM Mohiuddin threw out the petition filed by LS Chowhan, a state police officer who had served as Deputy Superintendent of Police and later as Superintendent of Police. Chowhan had argued that the withholding of his integrity certificate by state authorities had hurt his chances of making the IPS selection list for the panel years 2009-A and 2010.
He also alleged bias and procedural irregularities in the functioning of the selection committee.
The court was not convinced. It noted that the selection committee evaluates officers on the basis of their service records and annual confidential reports. Chowhan had been graded “good,” while several other officers in the running were graded “very good.” That, the bench said, was reason enough for his exclusion, given the limited number of vacancies.
The court also found no evidence of bias and held that the non-issuance of the integrity certificate had no bearing on the committee’s independent assessment. It accordingly upheld the earlier order of the Central Administrative Tribunal, Hyderabad.
