JUDGMENT

ADARSH KUMAR GOEL, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This matter has been placed before us in view of the dis-agreement by a Bench of Two Judges with the earlier order of this Court on the question whether the height can be the sole criteria for the selection of a police constable. Order dated 17th February, 2009, referring the matter to a larger Bench, reads as follows:-

“The dispute relates to the selection of constables in the State of Bihar. The minimum height requirement was 165 cms. for general candidates and 160 cms. for scheduled castes candidates. Admittedly, the petitioners were above that minimum height. However, it seems that they were rejected because the procedure adopted by the respondents was that height was the sole criterion for selection, which, in our view, is arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India.

In our opinion, once a candidate has the minimum height as required by the relevant Rules, height then becomes an irrelevant consideration and other criteria should be taken into consideration, like intelligence, physical strength, etc. In this case, the selection amongst those who had the minimum height was done by only selecting the talle