Bengal govt explains to HC civic police volunteer recruitment

The West Bengal government today told the Calcutta High Court that it had interviewed 875 candidates on a single day in April, 2013 and another 1,351 candidates four days later for the recruitment of civic police volunteers at two police stations in the state.
The bench wanted to know how the onerous task of interviewing so many candidates on a single day was performed.
Advocate General Kishore Dutta submitted before a division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Nishita Mhatre and Justice T Chakraborty that the interview process began at 8.00 AM and continued till the next morning.
The bench asked the AG whether the interview board had enough time to interview so many candidates on a given day, to which Dutta stated that apart from one or two breaks, the interviews were continuously taken.

Dutta stated that 875 candidates were interviewed on April 8, 2013 at Barikul police station, while 1,351 candidates were interviewed on April 12, 2013 at Sarenga police station.
Submitting in an appeal against a single bench order in connection with a petition filed by some candidates who appeared for the interview at Barikul and Sarenga police stations in Bankura district, Dutta said that marks were given to the candidates on the basis of their physical appearance.

Justice Sanjib Banerjee had in May, 2016 cancelled appointments of 320 civic volunteers in Bankura and had ruled that the remaining 1.30 lakh would have their jobs till the end of the year.

The AG today claimed that the single bench had assumed while passing its order that the recruiters had not conducted the process properly and as such the order was not legally tenable.
He also submitted that there was a delay of three years in filing the petitions before the high court in 2016, while the recruitments were of 2013, and that the delay was not properly explained for.
The matter would be heard again tomorrow.