New Delhi: The Centre has decided to scrap the Limited Competitive Examinations approved by the then Manmohan Singh-led government in 2010 to recruit IPS cadres from among officers below 35 serving in the armed forces and in central and state police forces.

The LCE, the post-26/11 brainchild of then home minister P. Chidambaram, was aimed at plugging the shortage of IPS officers in the country.

As on January 1, 2018, there were 2,887 directly recruited IPS officers in the country against a sanctioned strength of 3,423, a shortfall of 16 per cent.

Last month, the Centre submitted an affidavit in the Supreme Court saying it wanted to scrap the LCE.

The government also said it was not in favour of taking 240 aspirants from the armed forces and central and state police forces who had sat for the exam in 2012.

In its affidavit the Union home ministry, the cadre-controlling authority for IPS officers, said LCE candidates had become a "liability" and were "no longer suitable for appointment in IPS due to high age profile".

"The LCE candidates may claim seniority from the year of examination i.e. 2012. These rules when framed had not anticipated such delay in recruitment since these officers will be recruited in 2018.... This will entirely destabilise the established criteria for fixation of seniority and create anomaly in the service and invite litigations," the affidavit said.

The UPSC had conducted the exam in 2012 and 240 candidates had appeared. Of them 80 were to be selected but because of litigations by IPS officers and their association, the results were not declared.

After hearing a petition from the aspirants the top court had in November last year directed the UPSC to declare the results. But the home ministry had filed a counter-affidavit saying the issue was related to a policy decision of the government.

Sources said the IPS officers' lobby was against the LCE, fearing it would create problems for directly recruited IPS officers and would lead to seniority-related problems.

At present IPS officers are selected through the annual civil services examination conducted by the UPSC and by nomination from state police services.

Under Rule 4 (2) of the IPS cadre rules, 1954, the Centre, at an interval of every five years, reviews the strength and composition of each such cadre in consultation with the state governments concerned and the authorised strength for each cadre.

According to records with the home ministry, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of vacancies in IPS cadre (113), followed by Bengal (87), Odisha (79), Karnataka (72) and Bihar (43).