July 17: The state government today assured the Bombay High Court that it will comply with the Supreme Court guidelines on reservations in the police force.

The assurance came in the wake of three petitions filed by former Mumbai Port Trust employee Anil Joshi, retired assistant commissioner of police Vinayak Dange and assistant police inspector Madhav Pradhan. The petitions challenged the promotion of reserved category police officers superseding open category candidates.

While Joshi claimed to have resigned after being superseded by a junior reserved class person, Dange has filed the petition in public interest.

Dange generally follows up the apex court rulings on reservations.

Pradhan also claims to have been superseded by his juniors due to ``accelerated seniority'' granted to reserved class candidates. The three petitioners want the state government to adhere to SC guidelines on reservations in police force.

While the petitioners were represented by D Y Chandrachud and M M Vashi, the government was represented by advocate general C J Sawant and Rajashekhar Govilkar.

The government today filed an affidavit giving a break-up of reserved and open category police personnel in the state. The statistics showing the cadre strength and promotions granted to police personnel indicate that the percentage of reserved class candidates has superseded that of open category candidates.

According to the petitioners, the superseding in promotions is mainly because the government did not issue a fresh seniority list (with effect from February 1995) after the SC ruling was pronounced in 1995.

Following assurance given by advocate general C J Sawant, the division bench of Chief Justice M B Shah and Justice Ranjana Desai disposed of the petitions, stating they do not hold any more. However, petitioners can approach the courts after eight weeks if the government fails to follow the guidelines.''

The SC guidelines are laid down in three separate judgements, including R K Sabharwal vs State of Punjab.

Among the guidelines are: while filling the backlog of reserved category candidates, the state will not exceed the permissible reservation quota each year. The open category candidate will remain senior in the promoted post, even if the reserved category person is promoted first from the feeder post.

Reservation of seats will be decided on the total number of posts and not the total number of vacancies.

The main prayers of the petition include an order to the government not to further promote any reserve class police officers until the exceeded reservedclass quota is restored or brought back to ``legally allowable percentage.''

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.