Supreme Court to states: File details of vacancies in police services

Expressing concern over nearly five lakh vacancies in the police forces across the country , the Supreme Court directed home secretaries of all states to provide details of vacant positions in their respective states and the steps taken by their governments to fill up the slots.A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar, Justice N V Ramana and Justice D Y Chandrachud directed the home secretaries to file affidavits within four weeks, saying they would have to personally appear before it if they failed to file the response within the stipulated time.

The court passed the order on a PIL filed by advocate Manish Kumar who informed the court that 24% of the sanctioned strength of police forces is lying vacant as per 2015 data and pleaded to the court to direct the state governments to take immediate steps for filling up the vacancies. As per 2015 data, the total sanctioned strength of police forces was 26,63,222 but the working strength was only 17,21,101. Placing the data before the bench, the petitioner contended that lack of sufficient number of police personnel could lead to a law and order situation as the present strength was not adequate enough to carry out policing across the country .

The largest number of vacancies is in Uttar Pradesh where the number of vacant posts was more than the existing police strength. According to the data, the total number of police officials is 165,040 and the number of vacant post is 199,160. Kerala and Nagaland have no vacancies.

Asking for fresh data, the court asked the Centre to communicate its order to all the state home secretaries within one week to ensure compliance.

“Such state governments, who would fail to file affidavit sought in the order, we will ensure the presence of the home secretary himself along with all necessary records to assist this court in disposal of the instant matter,” the bench said.

The bench said it would examine other aspects of police reforms after vacancies are filled.