HC stays appointment of constables citing irregularities

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court on Friday imposed a temporary stay on the appointment of constables in the Rajasthan Police under the ongoing recruitment process. The single bench of Justice M N Bhandari stayed the appointment after hearing a petition that alleged grave irregularities in the recruitment tests.
The matter related to the Rajasthan Police Recruitment Examination 2010 for which the state government advertised 7,300 posts of constables in October 2010.The police were allowed to continue the recruitment process for the advertised posts but it will now have to wait for the court nod before giving appointments to the selected candidates.
The appointments were stayed when a petition filed by a candidate, declared unqualified in the selection process, pointed out discrepancies in results of the physical examinations conducted as part of the recruitment.
In his peition, Ravindra Singh from Bharatpur, said the physical examination result showed the police recording his chest measurement as 88.7 cm without expansion, while after expansion it was 87.8 cm. “How can the measurement of the expanded chest be less than the normal chest? This shows grave discrepancies were committed in the physical examination test,” Singh’s counsel D C Tiwari said.
Justice Bhandari, later, directed additional advocate general Nasir Ali Naqvi to file the government’s reply by July 29 when the petition is likely to be heard again. Notices in the case were issued to the home secretary, the director general of police and the commandant of the RAC’s 6th Battalion.
Singh had applied for the constable’s post in this battalion. The physical test was conducted at the Lohagarh stadium at Lohagarh in Bharatpur district on June 20, 2011. Singh was declared unqualified on the basis of alleged wrong measurements of his chest. He claimed in court that the real measurements of his chest were 83 cm without expansion and 89 cm with expansion.