HC terms 'arbitrary' to bar inspector from taking firing test

A bench of justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Manmohan Singh quashed the Indo-Tibetan Border Police decision terming it as "arbitrary."

"Failure or disqualification in a particular test cannot debar a person to appear in the subsequent fresh selection. The subsequent fresh selection would be the one which is held immediately thereafter.

"It would clearly be arbitrary and beyond the powers of the authority concerned to hold a person not even entitled to be considered for fresh selection in the next 5 years," said the bench.

While quashing the order barring ITBP Inspector Lalit Kumar from taking up the firing tests for next five years, the bench asked the authorities to allow him to appear in future selection processes for offshore postings.

It was held earlier that Lalit could not be "deputed to a foreign mission on account of having failed the firing test conducted by United Nations Personnel."

Security personnel and officers of various central para-military forces are deployed in Indian missions abroad and for security duty under the aegis of the United Nations.

The court said the settled selection process that the failure in firing test does not bar a person from taking up similar test again cannot be altered as it relates to a policy decision.

"Suffice would it be to state that the subject is an occupied territory in the form of a Standing Order... And thus the executive decision on the subject cannot be contrary to the policy notified," it said.