ANAMIKA SINGH Vs. STATE OF U.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This bunch of writ petitions are directed against orders dated 26th June, 2019, passed by the Senior Superintendent of Police, Prayagraj, whereby all the petitioners have been terminated from service. The identical worded orders passed in respect of all the petitioners record that the petitioners while undergoing on the job training, sat on a protest (dharna) on 5.6.2019, and also blocked the road in front of training centre for raising their grievances that were extremely ordinary/trivial in nature, and were otherwise based mostly on rumours. Such act of indiscipline, while on training in a disciplined organization has been viewed seriously as an act of misconduct. Show cause notice was accordingly issued to them, to which a reply has also been submitted. The explanation submitted by present petitioners to the show cause notice has not been found satisfactory and it is observed that chances of petitioners becoming good police personnels do not exist. Jurisdiction under Rule 20(4) of the U.P. Police Constable and Head Constable Service Rules, 2015 read with Regulation 541(2) of the U.P. Police Regulations has been invoked to terminate the services of the present petitioners. Aggrieved by such orders of termination the petitioners are before this Court.

(2.) Before coming to the issues on merits, it would be worth noticing some of the background facts. State of Uttar Pradesh initiated process to recruit 41520 Constables in Civil Police and Pradeshiya Armed Constabulary (PAC), vide advertisement dated 14.1.2018. Petitioners also applied against the advertisement and having cleared the recruitment process were ultimately selected on 18.2.2019. All the petitioners were allotted Allahabad (Prayagraj) for undergoing on the job training. The first part of the JTC Training Course was successfully completed by the petitioners w.e.f. 16.5.2019 to 31.5.2019. The next round of training was to be undertaken at Regional Training Centre at Varanasi (hereinafter referred to as the RTC) w.e.f. 3rd June, 2019. It is on record that 300 female constables joined the RTC at Varanasi on 1st June, 2019, while 47 other female constables joined on 2nd June, 2019. Their training commenced on 3rd June, 2019. It is at this stage that the incident is said to have happened giving rise to passing of the orders of termination.

(3.) Alongwith the writ petition various newspaper reports have been annexed. The first of such newspaper report published in Hindi Daily 'Amar Ujala' from Varanasi is of 6th June, 2019. The headline of the news item quotes the lady trainee constables that their videos were prepared while they were having bath. The incident in question reportedly occurred in the night of 4/5th June, 2019, as per the newspaper report. A protest was reportedly organized by the female trainee constables demanding adequate security arrangement for them and for proper boundary etc. to be raised for their safety and security. Similar reports got published in other prominent newspapers including Dainik Jagaran etc., which are also annexed. Newspaper reports, ipso facto, may not be acceptable, but in view of what has been brought on record of the writ petitions, as would be elaborated later, it is apparent that serious issues relating to safety, security and breach of privacy for female constables on training had arisen resulting in a protest by them.