Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Apr 5: High Court has restrained the Government from finalizing the selection/ appointment to the post of Secretary J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL). However, it has made it clear that Government may go on with the selection process.
The direction was passed by Justice Sanjeev Kumar in a writ petition filed by Dr Arvinder Singh Amn, Additional Secretary in J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages seeking quashment of Advertisement Notice No.DIP/J-12968/18 dated March 1st 2019 whereby applications were invited for the post of Secretary JKAACL without laying down any terms and conditions of eligibility and without disclosing any criteria of selection/short-listing.
The petitioner has sought directions to the Government for formulating and prescribing the terms and conditions including eligibility conditions for filling the post of Secretary JKAACL as the existing rules are silent with regard to the eligibility conditions for the post of Secretary.
After hearing Advocate Sheikh Shakeel Ahmed with Advocates Sheikh Najeeb Ashraf, Rahul Raina, Supriya Singh Chouhan, M Zulkarnain Chowdhary, Prannoy Parmar and Himani Jamwal for the petitioner, Justice Sanjeev Kumar issued notices to the Commissioner Secretary to Government, General Administration Department, President JKAACL, Commissioner Secretary, Department of Culture, Dr (Prof) Rattan Lal Shant, Chairman of Search Committee for the post of Secretary, Secretary JKAACL and Deputy Secretary Department of Culture requiring all of them to file their response within four weeks.
Senior AAG H A Siddiqui and Government Advocate Bhanu Singh Jasrotia accepted notices in the open court on behalf of these functionaries of the State Government.
Earlier, Advocate S S Ahmed submitted that for the coveted post of Secretary JKAACL the Government has neither prescribed any norms regarding eligibility nor has fixed any selection criteria and thus there is an element of arbitrariness in the matter and appropriate directions are required to be issued to the State Government to lay down a rational/transparent criteria for selection to the post of Secretary JKAACL.
“Merely on pick and choose basis the appointment of Secretary JKAACL is being made by the President of the Academy. Moreover, there is no qualification prescribed for the post of Secretary in the Recruitment Rules of the Academy with the result the merit is being compromised”, he further said, adding “the petitioner is the senior most Additional Secretary in JKAACL and is continuing on the post for the last more than ten years as such is most suitable in-service candidate for manning the post of Secretary JKAACL”.
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