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Gender bias in top appointments: Kiran Bedi

New Delhi, July 27 (PTI): Kiran Bedi, the country's first woman IPS officer, on Thursday complained there was gender bias in appointments to top posts, a day after her junior colleague, Y S Dadwal, pipped her to the post of Delhi Police chief.

Bedi, who made her displeasure clear recently, said it was too much of a coincidence that two women bureaucrats had earlier lost out to men for the posts of Cabinet Secretary and Foreign Secretary.

In the wake of allegations by women's groups that the Magsaysay award winning officer was a victim of gender bias, she said "I have never worked on gender basis" as "I am a police officer who has to work for all."

"But the fact is that this is a little too much of a coincidence. This is the third of the series. The senior-most woman lost out as the Cabinet Secretary, and then we had Veena Sikri's case lost out in the IFS," she told NDTV.

Bedi was referring to Women and Child Development Secretary, Reva Nayyar's case wherein she lost out on a chance to become the Cabinet Secretary despite being the senior-most IAS officer.

However, Minister of State for Home, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, rubbished the allegations levelled by Bedi saying all the due procedures were followed in the selection of the new Police Commissioner.

"There is a set procedure for selection for any government post. If the Delhi Police Commissioner has selected, then the due procedure must have been followed," he said.

He said the government was not afraid if Bedi moves the court.