The presence of women personnel in the police force, considering the crime against women, is the prime need of the hour, the Supreme Court has said in a recent judgment.
A Bench led by Justices S.K. Kaul and Krishna Murari said every endeavour should be made to ensure the higher representation of women in the police force.
“The presence of lady members in the police force, considering the crime against women, is a prime need of the hour. Thus we feel that every endeavour should be made to ensure that there is higher representation of women in the police services,” the Supreme Court said in an order on September 27.
The order was passed in an appeal filed by Khusbu Sharma, an applicant to the post of SI in the Bihar Police. The respondent was the Bihar Police Subordinate Service Commission.
Ms. Sharma, who had cleared the preliminary and main written examinations, wrote to the Commission in 2018 to postpone the date for the physical test as she was in an advanced stage of pregnancy. Later, on checking, the apex court found that there were 73 other women aspirants who had written to the Commission with an identical plea to postpone the physical test which was due in September last year. The Commission, the court learnt, deemed best not to respond to any of these aspirants.
The Patna High Court allowed the plea of the women but a Division Bench of the Court, on an appeal by the Commission, rejected their request in March 2019. Subsequently, Ms. Sharma approached the apex court.
During the hearing of the appeals, the apex court Bench found that it was after much prodding from the Supreme Court that the Commission had in 2017 finally issued the advertisement for the vacancies in the State Police.
The Bench said the Commission did not conduct the tests as per schedule initially and the women aspirants were not to blame. The court directed the physical test and other processes to be completed in two months and allowed the women aspirants to take part.
“It is not as if some quota is being carved out for the women candidates but they are competing against men candidates. They have been successful in competitive examination getting higher merit,” the Supreme Court said.
