Srinagar- In a significant development, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has vacated stay on appointment of candidates against 1395 Panchayat Secretary posts by JKSSB in 19 districts of Jammu and Kashmir.
A bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal passed the orders after it was brought to court’s notice counsel for respondents including J&K Service Selection Board that the interim directions passed on 16 and 24 June 2022 in all petitions were harshly working against them.
They said interim orders were stalling the whole recruitment process, which not only causes injury to the large number of employees, who are deprived of the right of consideration for appointment, but is also antithesis of public interest and adversely affects the service as a whole.
The petitions were filed a number of Gram Rozgar Sahayaks/Sevaks (GRSs), contending that their prospect of absorption and encadrement in the main service J&K Rural Development (Subordinate) Service was likely to be frustrated in the face of the Selection Advertisement Notification (no. 03 of 2022) dated 26 May 2022 issued by the respondent JKSSB for the purpose of direct recruitment to 1395 district cadre posts of Panchayat Secretary in 19 districts under the Department of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj.
“It is very strange that the petitioners instead of participating in the selection process, have filed the instant writ petitions with a view to stall the selection process by way of misrepresentation of the facts and on mere apprehension, as they have based their claim on the draft rules, the proposal of which has already been rejected by the competent authority,” the court said, observing that due to the passing of the interim orders in these petitions, the whole selection process has been stalled.
“As per the learned counsel appearing for the official respondents, the department is suffering due to dearth of staff and has prayed for vacation of the interim orders,” the court said
Even otherwise, the Court said, prima-facie the petitioners have no locus to challenge the selection process for direct recruitment as there is “no preferential fundamental right of the petitioners for seeking regularization.”
“After hearing learned counsel for the parties, this Court is of the opinion that no fruitful purpose will be served to extend the interim directions, which are being harshly working against the interests of the candidates, who have since been selected and not being appointed due to the rider imposed by this Court,” the court said, adding, “In the aforesaid backdrop, the interim directions passed by this Court vide orders dated 16.06.2022 & 24.06.2022 ……are hereby vacated and the official respondents are directed to finalize the selection process, expeditiously.” However, the selection/appointment of the selected candidates, the court said, shall be subject to the final outcome of the instant petitions.
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