A Division Bench of the High Court led by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and consisting of Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy posted the PILs that challenged the AP Mahila Police Rules, 2021, wherein ‘Mahila Samrakshana Karyadarsis’ in the ward and village secretariats were designated as ‘Mahila Police’, to February 24 for final hearing.
Appearing for Umamaheshwara Rao, a student from Visakhapatnam, advocate Y. Balaji said the impugned rules were contrary to Article 309 of the Constitution and also against the AP District Police Act, and cited the Supreme Court judgement in A.B. Krishna Vs. State of Karnataka to prove his point.
Mr. Balaji argued that the government was trying to bring the ‘Mahila Karyadarsis’ into the Police Department through the backdoor, equating it with allowing persons who are not surgeons to operate on the patients.
The court observed that such methods of recruitment could not be permitted in public employment and when there is a separate procedure for police recruitment, bringing ‘Mahila Karyadarsis’ into the Police Department cannot be allowed. Upon a request by the government pleader to be given time to file a counter, the court posted the matter to Thursday.
