'FIR alone cannot bar police recruitment'

The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) has held that the Punjab Police cannot mechanically deny recruitment to a candidate solely on the basis of a pending or previously registered FIR, observing that authorities must assess each case on its own merits and in accordance with constitutional principles.

In a six-page judgment authored by Chief Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, the court upheld an order of the Lahore High Court (LHC) and held that the Constitution does not permit executive authorities to apply recruitment policies in a manner that disregards the individual facts and circumstances of each case.

The court observed that administrative discretion must always be exercised after due application of mind and be supported by reasons demonstrating a rational connection between the available material and the conclusion reached.

"An order refusing appointment which merely reproduces the existence of a past FIR, without evaluating the legal effect of the subsequent acquittal or the surrounding circumstances, reflects no real exercise of discretion but only a mechanical application of policy.

"Such an approach cannot be sustained in constitutional adjudication," the judgment states.

The court observed that while recruitment to public service, particularly to a disciplined force such as the police, permits the state to prescribe standards of integrity, character and suitability, the appointing authority's discretion remains subject to constitutional limitations.

"The appointing authority is therefore competent to scrutinise the antecedents of a candidate before making an appointment. However, such scrutiny must be exercised within constitutional limits.

"Executive discretion cannot be transformed into an arbitrary or mechanical exercise by treating the mere fact of registration of a criminal case as an automatic and irreversible disqualification, regardless of the candidate's subsequent exoneration."

The judgment emphasised that every administrative decision affecting public employment must remain consistent with the constitutional guarantees of fairness, legality and equality.

The court further held that the Punjab Police policy letter relied upon by the authorities must be interpreted in a manner consistent with constitutional principles.

"An executive instruction may regulate the process of recruitment and prescribe standards for verification of antecedents, but it cannot override the legal consequences flowing from a judicial determination."

The judgment added that once a competent court has acquitted a candidate, the appointing authority cannot ignore that judicial finding by continuing to treat the candidate as though the allegations contained in the FIR had been established.

"Such an approach would amount to substituting executive suspicion for judicial determination, a course that is impermissible under the constitutional framework," the court observed. However, the court clarified that an acquittal does not automatically entitle a person to appointment in the police service.

"Appointment to the Police Department is not a matter of automatic entitlement but remains subject to the appointing authority being satisfied that the candidate possesses the requisite suitability, character and integrity expected of a member of a disciplined force."