In Brief
Four candidates (Raj Kumar, Shiv Singh, Deepa Tomar, and Prem Singh Choudhary) applied for police constable positions and disclosed criminal cases against them. All were acquitted or compromised their cases. The Delhi Police Screening Committee rejected them as unsuitable. The High Court quashed these rejections, holding the Committee acted mechanically. The Supreme Court allowed the Police's appeals, holding that: (1) acquittal does not guarantee public employment; (2) the Screening Committee's suitability assessment deserves deference unless proven malicious or illegal; (3) courts cannot sit in appeal over selection decisions on comparative merits; and (4) for police recruitment especially, careful scrutiny of criminal antecedents is crucial to maintain public confidence in the force.
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