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5. The IPS being an All-India Service has a constitutional origin (part XIV, Article 312) and is governed by the All India Services Act, 1951. Clause 3(1) of this law stipulates that the Central Government may after consultation with the governments of the States and by notification in the official gazette, make rules for the regulation of recruitment and the conditions of the service of persons appointed. Article 320 93) of the Constitution requires the UPSC to be consulted on all matters relating to methods of recruitment to civil services and for civil positions. The suggestion/proposal of the Committee were accordingly sent to the DoPT, State/Union Territories, UPSC and Ministry of Law for comments. The record shows that the matter was deliberated from time to time. As pointed out by the petitioner, no doubt, UPSC expressed certain reservations in the beginning. The UPSC termed the proposal unviable and impractical. On March, 15,2010, UPSC Secretary Alok Rawat, replying to a letter from the MHA said, "in the context of recruitment of officers in the Indian Police Service through limited competitive examination, the commission is of the view that the proposed LCE may not be a viable and practical proposition." The UPSC among various reasons cited for its objection to the LCE said the commission was equipped to recruit an equal number of officers through its civil services examination and there was no need for a separate recruitment process. "There appears to be no reason why the additional requirements for IPS cannot be made up through the same examination over the same period of time by increasing the vacancies for the IPS by say 70 every year," it said. It also warned the MHA of a dent to the morale of State Police Service officer beyond the age of 35, who would not be able to take a shot at the LCE. The Commission also cited the shortage of officers at all the paramilitary forces as another reason to desist from going ahead with the LCE. Above all, it added that the proposal had the potential to open a pandora's box leading to more such demands for mid career entry into the other two all India services with similar negative consequences as listed above. The State Governments, backed by their home departments, also wrote to the centre informing it of their opposition to the said recruitment method for the IPS. The Tamil Nadu government in a letter to the Secretary, Ministry of Personnel, public grievance and pension dated June 7, 2010 said, "This government is of the view that there is no need for a separate recruitment or lateral induction and the present system of recruitment does not require any modification." The West Bengal Government write to the government of India on August 28, 2010, "the State Government is not in favour of introduction of the scheme of Limited Competitive Examination for induction in to the IPS." So did the governments of Bihar, Nanagaland, Tripura, Karnataka, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Goa, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh. The All India IPS Association too made representations to the Home Minister. Even the Law Ministry that the MHA consulted was cautious in its advice.

9. The aforesaid sequence of events would demonstrate that before adopting this methodology of LCE as one of the methods of recruitment, not only a Committee was constituted, the recommendations of the Committee were deliberated in depth by all concerned departments. Final product in the form of approval to the system as well as rules which are notified takes into concerns of other departments and their nod to this methodology of recruitment.

10. This Court cannot comment as to whether the system introduced now is impeccable or there could be better alternatives. The facts taken note above, do suggest that the UPSC had initially suggested that it could recruit the same number of candidates (70 per year) through its regular Civil Services Examination by increasing its IPS vacancies and, therefore, there was no need for LCE method. No doubt, there were also the reservations on the ground that shortages of officers was there at all the para military forces and the proposal in question may open a Pandora's box leading too much more such demands for mid career entry into the other two all India services with similar negative consequences. The petitioners also expressed their apprehension that it would reduce the chance of minorities which are already underrepresented in All India Service. At the same time, the view of the Ministry was that there was an emergent need to deploy trained personnel within a short period which could be recruited through LCE. As per the government, it lacks the infrastructure to train a batch of 200 IPS recruits and, therefore, the initial suggestion of UPSC was not viable. Be as it may, as stated above, the matter was ultimately discussed at all levels and the UPSC, Ministry of Law etc have fallen in line.