Directions: Select the appropriate word from the given options and fill blank (viii).

Directions: The following  passage has several numbered blanks with suggestions for the same given after the passage. Select the proper option.

Faced with the _(i)_ patronage of _(ii)_ and routine transfers of upright officials, the city police has _(iii)_ to a _(iv)_ of encounters to _(v)_ underworld elements. The rising numbers of deaths in this fashion suggests a knee-jerk response which makes nonsense of the rule of law. Yet the minister in charge of home portfolio has _(vi)_ that encounters will continue to be _(vii)_ upon to _(viii)_ lawlessness. It is a different matter that he has been silent about his own party having given tickets to family members of drug _(ix)_ during elections. _(x)_, the Mumbai High Court, while admitting a writ petition on such encounters, has _(xi)_ city police commissioner to file an affidavit.