Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Apr 27 : High Court today in a significant judgment directed the Services Selection Board (SSB) to provide the weightage of points for higher qualification to the aggrieved candidates applied for the posts of teachers as advertised by the Board and redraw the final selection list for the posts in question on the basis of points.
Hearing a batch of appeals filed by the board challenging therein the writ court judgments passed in various writ petitions, the Division Bench of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Vinod Chatterji Koul dismissed a batch of appeal of SSB with the directions to Board to assign appropriate points to all the relevant qualifications omitted by the aggrieved candidates while filing their application forms for the post of teachers.
“Accordingly, the appeals filed by the Board are dismissed along with all connected applications therewith”, the DB concluded and consequently, allowed 14 writ petitions filed by the aggrieved candidates and quashed the order of board rejecting therein to give weight-age to the candidates for their higher qualification.
Court directed the Board for giving appropriate points to these candidates with the condition if the said higher qualifications have been acquired by them prior to the last cut-off date of the advertisement notice concerned. This exercise, court added, shall be undertaken and concluded by the Board expeditiously, and, in any case, not later than eight weeks from the date of this order.
The writ court had directed the Board to call the aggrieved candidates for counselling, verify their documents and assess their grade by awarding weightage of higher qualification denied to them on account of having omitted to fill-up the requisite column in their online application forms.
The Jammu and Kashmir SSB had invited applications from amongst the eligible candidates for selection against the posts of Teacher vide its various notifications in the year 2017 for the post of teachers in different streams for different Districts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Thereafter, the Board declared results/ provisional shortlists with respect to the notifications on the basis of the following criteria which was earmarked in the advertisement notifications.
After issuance of the provisional shortlists with reference to the selection process in question, a number of representations were filed by certain competing candidates before the Board stating therein that they have not been given the additional points for higher qualification on the ground of same having been omitted in their online application forms, resulting in their non-inclusion in the provisional shortlists and inclusion of less meritorious candidates than them.
When no decision on the representations was taken by the Board despite lapse of a considerable period of time, the aggrieved candidates approached the Writ Court through the medium of Writ petitions seeking a direction upon the respondent Board to award appropriate points to them for possessing higher qualification.
“We do not feel that the aggrieved candidates, by mentioning the qualification as M. Ed, have violated any of the terms and conditions mentioned in the application format”, the DB said adding with “it is the case of the Board that only such candidates who have entered the requisite qualification in their application forms will get preference, but this claim does not match with the qualification column of B. Ed and M. Ed so prescribed by the Board in the application format, thereby misleading the aggrieved candidates in filling up their application forms”.
Trending Now
E-Paper
Follow our WhatsApp channel