Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 23: Holding that an advanced-stage recruitment process cannot be thrown out on a weak and purely technical ground, the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has dismissed the appeals filed by the Union Territory and upheld the restoration of the JAKEDA selection process for the posts of Assistant Engineers and Junior Engineers.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal rejected LPA, thereby affirming the earlier Writ Court decision which had quashed Order No. 08-JAKEDA of 2019 dated December 2, 2019, cancelling the recruitment initiated under Advertisement Notice Nos. 1 and 2 of 2017.
The Court noted that 77 vacancies had been advertised by the J&K Energy Development Agency and that the written examination had already been conducted through an agency engaged after administrative approval. However, the recruitment process was later scrapped on the ground that the agency had been appointed without issuance of a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Expression of Interest (EOI), thereby denying other agencies an opportunity to participate.
Rejecting the UT’s stand, the Bench observed that the cancellation order did not point to any fraud, malpractice, illegality or incompetence in the conduct of the examination. It held that non-issuance of an RFP or EOI was merely a procedural omission and could not constitute a cogent ground for cancelling a recruitment process that had already reached an advanced stage. The Court went on to describe the reason projected for cancellation as “illusory in nature.”
The High Court also declined to accept the argument that the fresh reservation roster introduced after the J&K Reorganization Act, 2019, including new categories such as EWS and PSP, justified cancellation of the earlier process. The Bench made it clear that this ground did not form part of the original cancellation order and therefore could not be cited later to validate the action.
Reiterating that the State’s power to cancel a recruitment process is not absolute and must be based on bona fide and rational reasons, the High Court found no merit in either of the appeals and dismissed both, clearing the way for completion of the long-pending JAKEDA recruitment process.
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