3,000 personnel approach SC against the new CAPF law


Subhashis Mittra

The newly enforced Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) law is in the news mostly for wrong reasons. The CAPFs (General Administration) Act got embroiled in controversy right from the word go with cadre officers dubbing the legislation as ‘discriminatory’ towards them. A group of paramilitary officers have approached the Supreme Court challenging certain sections of the newly-enacted law, claiming this law will continue to restrict their career progression. A batch of writ petitions was filed by about 3,000 cadre officials drawn from the five CAPFs—Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB). These central para-military forces function under the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and are deployed for various law-and-order duties, internal security tasks like border guarding, countering terrorism and insurgency and conducting elections.

The petitions were filed under Article 32 of the Constitution that allows citizens to approach the Supreme Court to enforce their Fundamental Rights. The petitioners said they were ‘forced’ to move the apex court as they feel justice was not served to them by the new Act and the directives of the Supreme Court’s May 2025 verdict were not implemented. “We feel that the latest Act will not resolve the huge stagnation and career progression of CAPF cadre officers,” said the petitioners, who include gallantry medal winners and a few women officers as well. The officers have sought declaration of the sections 3 and 4 of the CAPF (General Administration) Act, 2026 as ‘ultra vires’ of the Constitution and that the Union government should be directed to give ‘full effect’ to the May 2025 judgement of the Supreme Court.

The apex court had on May 23 last year observed that the deputation of Indian Police Service (IPS) officers up to the rank of Inspector General (IG) in the CAPFs should be ‘progressively reduced’ over a period of two years to give more opportunities to cadre officers whose delayed promotions can ‘adversely’ impact the morale of these forces. The top court had also rejected a review petition filed by the Centre against this order. The Union government then brought in the CAPFs (General Administration) Bill in the Parliament which was notified as an Act in April. Section 3 of the said Act speaks about the regulation of recruitment and conditions of services in the CAPFs while Section 4 deals with central government’s power to amend schedules.