Chennai: The mid-level police hierarchy – from sub-inspectors up to promotee superintendents of police – in Tamil Nadu is set to undergo a massive change, as Supreme Court has set a 60-day ultimatum for the state to recast ranks of sub-inspectors recruited since the year 1995, only on the basis of their TNUSRB exam marks.More than 6,000 ranks in these segments will be impacted by the verdict.As of now, after candidates are selected through the TNUSRB examination, the department re-fixes their seniority based on performance in the exam held at the end of their one-year training at the police training college. Also, all promotions are always ‘temporary’, and regular promotions with a mandatory period of probation are seldom given. The SC order, delivered on May 1 by a division bench of Justice B V Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma has put an end to these accumulated anomalies.“This court is of the considered opinion that all seniority list(s) right from 1995 deserve to be re-cast by assigning proper seniority to the candidates who have been appointed from the open market as well as from in-service candidates solely on the basis of ranks assigned to the selected candidates by the appointing authority on the basis of marks obtained by them in the examination on the basis of which they have been selected and appointed to the post of sub-inspector of police.There is no other process which can be followed in the present case,” ruled the bench.The bench traced how on three occasions – July 1995, Oct 1996 and June 2009 – govt issued GOs envisaging 20% quota in sub-inspector vacancies for in-service candidates promoted from the ranks of constables. The govt had also taken a policy decision to keep the in-service quota candidates above the directly recruited SIs in seniority list. Though not notified, successive govts recruited SIs, included in-service candidates under the 20% quota and also kept them at the top of the seniority list, irrespective of their marks.After the govt notified it in 2017, the matter was dragged to Madras high court, which upheld its validity on Nov 21, 2017.On May 1, however, the apex court reversed the order citing the test case of topper R Ranjith Singh, who had secured 79.1 marks, and Santhakumari, an in-service candidate who secured 69.27 marks. As per the impugned rules, Santhakumari was placed over and above every other candidate, including Ranjith Singh in the seniority list.Disapproving of the policy which undermined recruitment exam’s rank list, the apex court quashed the amended rule and said that the govt shall issue a fresh gradation list solely on basis of marks obtained by candidates in the examination by which they were recruited to the services. “The exercise of recasting and issuance of revised gradation list will be positively concluded within a period of 60 days from today,” it added.Noting that the state shall not revert any officer promoted on the basis of the seniority list already issued since 1995, the bench said the govt shall not issue any promotion order in respect of departmental candidates till the revised seniority list is issued. In case the direct recruits are found fit for promotion to the next higher post, they will be entitled for notional promotion, fixation of seniority and all other consequential benefits except back wages on grant of promotion to the next higher post.