SC upholds Centre stand on IPS (LCE)

0


The Supreme Court in its remarkable judgment upheld the decision of the Central government to do away with the Limited Competitive Examination (LCE) recruitment. The examination was used to make appointments to the Indian Police Service (IPS). The apex court observed that the decision has been taken in the ‘larger public interest’.

LCE was introduced in 2012 by the UPSC for filling up posts in the IPS through an amendment of the Indian Police Service (Recruitment) Amended Rules, 2011. The LCE was to operate alongside the normal mode of recruitment. The Commission conducted written tests and interviews but didn’t publish the results till date. The 2011 amendment was challenged by multiple petitions in different high courts. Some of the high courts, such as Delhi and Guwahati upheld the sanctity and validity of the amendment.

In January 2018, the Union Government decided to scrap the LCE and requested Supreme Court to transfer all the cases related to LCE to itself. The three-judge bench was constituted to look into the LCE case. The judges included Justice Madan, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Deepak Gupta. The three-judge bench upheld the decision of the Union Government.

The apex court believed that the government’s decision to scrap LCE is done keeping larger public interest in mind. The bench looked into the decision in a holistic manner and concluded that there was no case of mala fide intentions.