WHAT makes police verification for jobs, which is essential on many occasions and for many reasons, troubling is that it often leads to the exclusion of qualified and meritorious candidates, especially because of reports based on political identity rather than criminal records. Other troubling issues that emerge from such police verification are delays in the process, which in some cases stall appointments, and the practice of establishing the political affiliation of candidates and their families, which appears discriminatory. This also turns the process into a source of politicisation of the public administration system. It is in this context that the central students’ unions of four public universities — Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chattogram and Jahangirnagar — on December 2 voiced their concern. The concern arose from the exclusion of 13 candidates in the final, official notification for the 17th judicial services jobs. In a joint statement, the unions alleged that the candidates had been excluded because of police verification without reasons being stated. Those excluded are graduates of the University of Dhaka, the University of Rajshahi, the University of Chittagong, Jagannath University, the University of Barishal, the Islamic University and Gopalganj Science and Technology University.
The statement says that 102 candidates were recommended by the Judicial Services Commission after a competitive examination process, noting that the excluded candidates also proved their merit and that they should be officially notified for appointment unless there is evidence of criminal wrongdoing against them. The statement describes the move as inconsistent with constitutional tenets and as an affront to good governance. Such a practice, it adds, will harm the foundation of a neutral civil administration. The process of police verification is not only often used for the political profiling of candidates but is also used as a conduit for corruption and a means of harassment. In the process, qualified candidates are denied jobs based on negative police reports not always related to a criminal background. When the verification extends to the political identity of the candidates and their families, it constitutes a violation of constitutional rights to equality and opportunity. Candidates are often excluded without specific or valid reasons. In such cases of public service employment, the students’ unions state that the authorities should specify reasons for the exclusion of candidates, allow them to respond to the allegations and include them in the list for appointment if the explanations are satisfactory. This problem occurs not only in cases of employment but also in many other instances.
The government should, therefore, ease the police verification process and abolish the political aspect of such verification. The government should also reform the process to make it less biased and ensure that it cannot be used for corruption and harassment.
