The Supreme Court has upheld the Assam government's decision to cancel the recruitment process initiated in 2014 to fill up 104 posts of constables in the Assam Forest Protection Force (AFPF) over large-scale irregularities.

A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Manmohan set aside the concurrent direction of a single-judge bench of Gauhati High Court in 2019, which was affirmed by a division bench in 2021. The Assam government had filed an appeal against the findings of the high court.

The then office of the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and head of the forest force, Assam, had issued an ad on July 23, 2014, to fill up 104 posts of constables in the AFPF. The candidates were selected in May 2016.

However, following a change of political regime, the incumbent PCCF on July 4, 2016, submitted a note to the government highlighting serious anomalies in the selection process. The state cancelled the process on July 18, prompting the affected candidates to approach the high court.

The state government had defended the cancellation of the process on the ground that no written exam was held and that the candidates were selected based on interviews alone following a physical test.

It was also noted that of the 104 selected candidates, 64 belonged to Kamrup (Metro) and Kamrup (Rural) districts and that not a single candidate was selected from as many as 16 districts. The selection process had also not adhered to the reservation criterion, the state submitted.