Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Feb 22: High Court has restored 29 posts of Junior Assistant in the Education Department which were withdrawn by the then Chief Education Officer Kargil and directed to proceed for concluding the selection process to fill up these posts.
The Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Puneet Gupta said the Government department would be committing an illegality by usurping the quota meant to be filled by direct recruitment on the basis of merit through promotion.
The court said, the authorities in the case in hand, had acted illegally by withdrawing as many as 29 out of 42 referred posts and filling them through promotion after the exam and interview for direct recruitment had already been conducted.
“These 29 posts of Junior Assistants in the Education Department, which were withdrawn by the then Chief Education Officer, Kargil, vide its communications dated 09.06.2015 and 25.06.2016, shall be deemed to have been restored to the Board for making selection”, DB said adding, “the Subordinate Recruitment Board, Kargil shall proceed to conclude the selection and fill up those 29 posts of Junior Assistants in the Education Department by recommending the candidates on the basis of their merit”.
The Department of School Education in September, 2013, referred 42 posts of Junior Assistants in District Cadre Kargil to the District Subordinate Recruitment Board, Kargil, for making selection. The Board vide Advertisement January 16, 2016 invited applications to fill up in as many as 96 posts of Junior Assistants available in district cadre of various departments. The notified 96 posts included 42 posts of Junior Assistants referred by the Education Department.
The aggrieved aspirants participated in the written test and the viva-voce and were declared successful, as is evident from the award list prepared by the Board however, they came to know that the Chief Education Officer, Kargil, had, vide its communication dated 8th of January, 2019, withdrawn some posts of Junior Assistants. The withdrawal of the posts by the Chief Education Officer, Kargil, directly impacted the chances of the selected candidates being offered appointment in the Education Department, constraining them to approach the portals of the court.
The court observed that the Chief Education Officer did not follow the law and had usurped the quota of direct recruits by making substantive promotions of Class IV employees, including the writ petitioners, to the extent of 27 posts of Junior Assistants. To cover up these illegal promotions, the officer further issued a communication to the Board withdrawing 29 of the 42 originally referred posts.
The DB further directed that the appointment of the candidates consequent upon compliance with the court directions shall be retrospective from the date other candidates in the selection process initiated pursuant to Advertisement Notice No.01 of 2016 were appointed. “However, such appointment shall be notional and without any monetary benefits and the regular appointment shall be only with effect from the date the selected candidates are actually appointed”, court clarified.
The court directed for the culmination of selection and appointment process in terms of court directions within a period of three months from the date a copy of this judgment is served upon the official respondents.
The court further noted that as on date, 27 posts of Junior Assistants are lying vacant and, therefore, 27 new candidates can be accommodated against the available vacant posts and it is only for accommodating two more candidates, the promotees need to make place. “We, however, leave it to the official respondents to act in their wisdom and ensure that the quota meant for aforesaid two sources is maintained and such litigation in future is avoided”, read the judgment.
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