PANAJI
The Goa government has diverted 26 vacancies for Deputy Superintendent of Police (DySP) from direct recruitment to promotion, reversing course barely a year after raising the upper age limit for fresh candidates to 40 years to widen access to the posts.
The decision shifts these vacancies to serving police personnel eligible for promotion, while the government has reportedly separately retained 14 posts for direct recruitment. Significantly, the Goa Public Service Commission (GPSC), which had earlier objected to filling DySP posts through promotions, has agreed to the change through a letter dated October 21, 2026.
For this, Rule 7 of the Goa Police Service Rules, 2022 has been relaxed.
“In exercise of the powers conferred under Rule 42 of Goa Police Service Rules, 2022, the Government in consultation with the Goa Public Service Commission, hereby relaxes Rule 7 of the said Rules, for diversion of 26 vacancies from the direct recruitment quota to promotion quota for filling up the posts of Junior Scale Officer (Deputy Superintendent of Police), Goa Police Service,” the notification stated.
In January this year, the government said it had begun the process of filling around 30 vacant DySP posts under the direct recruitment quota, with the Personnel Department moving the file for approval. Days earlier, the government promoted 19 DySPs to Superintendent of Police (SP).
Under the existing recruitment framework, 40 percent of Junior Scale DySP vacancies fall under direct recruitment, while the remaining 60 percent go to promotion. The decision comes barely a year after the government amended the Goa Police Service Rules to raise the upper age limit for direct recruitment to DySP posts from 30 to 40 years, with an extension to 45 years for government servants and other notified categories.
The 2025 amendment also established a structured promotion mechanism, reserving 60 percent of Junior Scale vacancies for Police Inspectors with at least five years of regular service.
The latest decision has raised concerns about the future of direct recruitment to the DySP cadre, particularly after the GPSC's recruitment exercise that resumed after a gap of 25 years ended in 2024 without completing the selection process. The commission had shortlisted 62 candidates from around 2,500 applications after preliminary screening and screening examinations in October and November 2023. The recruitment advertisement, issued in August 2023, offered 28 posts -- 14 unreserved, eight for Other Backward Classes, four for Scheduled Tribes and two for Economically Weaker Sections. The selection process had reached the third level before the GPSC discontinued the recruitment drive.
