punjab

Updated: May 24, 2017 11:26 IST

Twenty two years after the assassination of then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh, the Captain Amarinder Singh government is all set to tweak rules to recruit his grandson as deputy superintendent of police (DSP) on “compassionate grounds.”

Guriqbal Singh, alias ‘Honey’, is the youngest grandson of Beant Singh, who was assassinated by terrorists on August 31, 1995. He is brother of Ludhiana MP Ravneet Bittu.

Guriqbal, 29, is a graduate and has also done a pilot training course from the US, but what makes him ineligible is that he has crossed the maximum age, 28, for direct recruitment as DSP in Punjab.

But the state government, sources in the home department disclosed, is likely to take up the case of his appointment in the next meeting of the cabinet for granting “special permission” to relax the age limit.

Senior officials say it would be the rarest case where the government would relax the age criterion to facilitate recruitment on compassionate grounds.

Guriqbal, in his application, has claimed that “since my grandfather was killed by militants as he waged a war against them while serving as the Chief Minister, I should be recruited as DSP under the policy of the government to give jobs to the families of those killed during the era of terrorism.”

Sources said it is not for the first time that the family is making efforts to get Guriqbal recruited as DSP. They said during the previous SAD-BJP government also, the family tried its best to get the job for him, but then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal “neither gave the nod nor declined to do so”.

The family also had the option to claim the post of PCS officer, but they opted for the DSP’s post as Guriqbal is interested to get into the police. Considered a “gentleman and stylish lad” in the Beant Singh clan, Guriqbal is currently assisting Bittu in nurturing the Ludhiana Lok Sabha constituency.

SC RULING QUESTIONS SUCH APPOINTMENTS

Age is not the only relaxation that the government is likely to give to late Beant Singh’s grandson. A top government official said a Supreme Court ruling, dated June 18, 2012, while clarifying the legality about the jobs on compassionate grounds, had stated that such appointments cannot be claimed as a right.

A bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Dipak Misra had ruled that such appointments were permissible only in genuine cases as per rules where the breadwinner’s death created a financial crisis in the family.

“In such cases the object is to enable the family to get over sudden financial crisis and not to confer a status on the family,” the bench had ruled.

FAMILY’S CLAIM BEING QUESTIONED

The Beant family’s move to get DSP’s job for Guriqbal by using the late CM’s name is being questioned in Congress circles as well.

“Bittu is already MP and another grandson Gurkirat Singh Kotli is second-time MLA from Khanna. The former CM’s son Tej Parkash Singh and daughter Gurkanwal Kaur have served as ministers in Punjab after Beant’s death. The family could have avoided pressing the claim for Guriqbal as it’s not morally right,” said a senior cabinet minister.

Ludhiana MP Bittu was not available for comments despite repeated attempts made by HT to contact him on his different mobile numbers. He was reported to be busy at the civil secretariat in Chandigarh.