Financial constraints shouldn't stop police recruitment: HC

The Bombay High Court today expressed concern about a high number of vacancies in Maharashtra police, noting that number of policemen engaged in VIP security was also high, and said lack of funds could not be an excuse for not recruiting.
"The vacancy is so high and the number of police personnel deployed for VIP security is also high. What if there is some law and order problem tomorrow? Police force is the only resource that can be used in cases of law and order problem. This is the primary responsibility of the police," the division bench of Justices A M Khanwilkar and A P Bhangale said.

The bench, which was hearing a public interest litigation, directed the police department to file affidavit next week stating the exact number of vacancies, and whether the present infrastructure for training personnel was enough.
The court was irked when told that the vacancies can be filled and additional training centres can be set up only when the state government sanctions funds.
Additional Director General of Police (Training) S P Gupta, present in the court, said government had financial constraints. But the judges were not sympathetic.
"How can the state government take a stand like financial constraints in such matters? Do you want to compromise law and order in the name of financial constraints?" said Justice Khanwilkar.

The court also suggested that there should be more police training institutes (at present there are nine), which could shorten the time needed to train and churn out trained personnel faster.
According to an affidavit filed by the government last year, nearly 26,000 posts were vacant and over 2,000 police personnel were deployed for VIP/VVIP security.