Housewife paves way for women to be police patils

Nagpur:Shalini Shelokar (35), a housewife from a village in Umred, has managed to gain entry into a competitive exam for recruitment of police patils after running pillar to post. Like over 1,000 other lady candidates, the officials had rejected her application because she did not own any property. She had to approach the high court and then the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal to get the rule tossed out.Following the mess, exams scheduled for March 21 have now been postponed, but Shalini’s efforts will help many others whose applications were rejected. Women never applied for the post of police patil until last year, when the state government announced reservation for women in the post. Based on the advertisement of August 28, 2015, a large number of candidates from Kuhi and Umred had applied for the exam on March 21, including around a 1,000 women. On March 2, the list of eligible candidate was released.
One of the eligibility criteria had said that the candidate applying for the post of police patil should possess immovable property in their village registered in their name. On this ground, all the women applicants from Kuhi and Umred were declared ineligible in one go.
Among the rejected candidates was Shalini. The day she was disqualified, she started her fight to get her name in the eligible candidate’s list. She filed an objection at the subdivisional office. When she did not get a reply from them until four days before the exam, Shalini approached the high court and then the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT) on March 18. Fortunately, MAT passed an order in Shalini’s favour on the same day.
Shalini’s lawyer Prateek Sharma said, “When I was approached by Shalini, we had to file the case at very short notice since the exam was commencing. MAT took the case on a priority considering the urgency.”
Fortunately, Shalini got interim relief along with two other applicants, Shaila Thaukar (28) and Jyoti Uiekey (33). MAT passed the order that the ground on which the applicant was considered ineligible no longer exists. Meanwhile, the subdivisional officer (SDO) representing the subdivisional office was given a four-week notice to appear before MAT.
Sharma said, “A GR dated November 28, 2003, formed prima facie evidence behind the court’s order. According to the GR, a lady has equal right over land registered in the name of her husband.”
Following the MAT order, the exam scheduled for March 21 was postponed. The announcement was made by the SDO on March 19.
In a positive move, thousands of women earlier marked ineligible will now be eligible on the basis of the court order. When fighting for her own eligibility, even Shalini had no idea that she will end up helping all other women disqualified just like her.
Now, the examination authority will need time to issue new ID cards and make arrangements for the exam with thousands of additional women candidates. The new exam dates will probably be announced after April 15.