New Delhi, Dec 28 The Delhi High Court has imposed a Rs 10,000 fine on the Union Home and Personnel Ministries, among others, for failing to respond to a plea by more than 500 CISF inspectors who complained that they have not been promoted in so many years, as stipulated.
Inspector-rank officers of the Central Industrial Security Force have moved the court, seeking direction to the Centre for giving them their due promotion to the rank of Assistant Commandant and the consequential benefits, along with a retrospective benefit from when they were supposed to be promoted, as per rules.
A bench of Justices Suresh Kumar Kait and Neena Bansal Krishna gave the respondents -the Union Home Ministry, under which the CISF functions, the CISF Director General, the Chairman of the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), and the Personnel Ministry - one final opportunity to file written arguments within four weeks, subject to expenses of Rs 10,000 to be deposited with the Delhi High Court Legal Services Committee.
The court will hear the matter next on February 3, 2023.
With only one promotion from sub-inspector to inspector in more than 28 years of service and no certain timeline to look forward to for their next promotion, the over 500 CISF inspectors filed a petition before the court, alleging deprivation in their career progression.
"As on date, the senior-most inspectors (executive) who joined the CISF in 1987 as direct sub-inspector have earned only one promotion (from SI to inspector) in 28 years and the reduction in promotion quota (from 50 per cent to 33 per cent) has further brought down their chances of promotion," the plea said.
It stated that despite serving for more than 30 years, they are still only promoted to the sub-officer levels of inspector while their contemporaries in other central services such as the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF), received proper advancement to the officer rank of Assistant Commandant the rank even CISF inspectors are looking forward to and beyond.
In response, the CISF said that CISF personnel cannot compare their promotions with other Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) as it is a need-based force mainly deployed in PSU/other installations and the post of AC in the CISF is created only as per needs of the client organisation.
However, the petitioners disagreed with the CISF's claim. They said that they were suffering because not enough AC positions were created, along with unfavourable recruitment guidelines, a failure to follow standard procedures, and a deliberate concealment of information from a parliamentary committee that was blatantly unlawful, capricious, and discriminatory.
In their plea, the group of inspectors claimed that the CISF had not conducted a cadre review to consider them for promotion since 1990.
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