Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 7: In a significant judgment, High Court today said the wait list gets exhausted when all the candidates are appointed and in case of death or resignation of an appointee, the selection process is to be initiated afresh.
Hearing a petition filed by one Velayat Ali seeking direction that the Public Services Commission (PSC) be directed to appoint him on the post which has remained vacant on account of resignation of original appointee as he was at Serial No. 1 in waiting list.
Justice Sanjeev Kumar said there is no merit in this petition and dismissed the same accordingly with the observation that the posts which fall vacant on account of death or resignation of the selected candidate are required to be treated as fresh vacancies to be filled up by following the process of selection to be initiated by issuance of fresh notification.
Justice Kumar said the wait list gets exhausted the moment all selected candidates join their position and simultaneously the wait list also ceases to operate even if the same is within the period of its validity.
“The candidates in the wait list cannot lay any claim on such posts. As is rightly said, wait list does not provide a perennial source of recruitment to be operated upon to fill the future vacancies including the vacancies that become available due to death or resignation of the selected/appointed candidates”, read the judgment.
Petitioner-Ali approached the court with a plea that the candidate figuring at serial No.1 in the category of Scheduled Tribe, namely, Shailender Kumar who upon his appointment had joined at Higher Secondary School, Kathera, Kathua on 17.01.2018 came to be subsequently selected as Assistant Professor in Botany in the Higher Education Department and was formally appointed by respondent No.1 vide Govt. Order No.208-HE of 2018 dated 23.03.2018.
Ali stated that on appointment as Assistant Professor, Shailender Kumar resigned from his post and, therefore, he being at serial No.1 of the wait list under Scheduled Tribe category became entitled to be appointed in his place.
Court after hearing the Counsel and perusal of record said there is no substance and merit in the plea of the petitioner as from a bare reading of the Rule, it is clear that the validity of the waiting list to be prepared by the Public Service Commission along with the select list is one year extendable by another six months.
Court added that the Rule, however, does not provide as to how and in what manner the wait list is required to be operated. “Mere inclusion of a candidate’s name in the merit list does not confer any right to be selected”, court said.
In an appropriate case, Court said, and of course in consonance with Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India, the State may choose not to appoint all or some of the candidates selected against the notified vacancies.
Court said the decision not to fill up vacancies, however, has to be taken bonafide for appropriate reasons and the waiting list candidate who may get chance of selection and appointment in case the selected candidate does not join is still on a lesser footing.
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