High Court of J&K Important Direction to JKSSB
The High Court of J&K and Ladakh on Thursday directed the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB) not to proceed with the selection process of various posts advertised by it.
Hearing a plea, a bench of Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi also directed the High-Level Committee constituted by the government to review the functioning of the JKSSB to submit its report within 10 days.
The government has directed the Review Committee constituted on April 22 to examine whether the process of tendering followed by JKSSB, in which the examination conducting company M/S Aptech Ltd, which was selected to conduct the examinations, was consistent with the extant Financial Rules and Acts.
It has also asked the committee to see if all the relevant norms were fully complied with.
The Review Committee had been directed to submit its report within 15 days.
“The Review Committee constituted in terms of Government Order No 487-JK (GAD) of 2023 dated April 22, 2023, shall submit its report within a period of ten days from the date of passing of this judgment,” the court said.
While the court asked the Chief Secretary to take a decision on the basis of the report and recommendations made by the Review Committee within 10 days thereafter, it said: “The decision of the Chief Secretary shall be communicated to the Secretary, JKSSB, who is directed to proceed strictly in accordance with the decision taken by the government. However, till the final decision is taken by the government, the JKSSB shall not proceed with the selection process.”
In their petition, 40 petitioners had sought the court’s intervention for a fair process of recruitment.
They had sought fairness by the recruiting agency conducting the examination.
The court observed that petitioners raised the Orwellian concern about the alleged possibility of modern technology being misused and abused by M/s Aptech Limited and others.
Regarding Aptech Limited, the petitioners had contended that it has “tainted past record and has also been blacklisted once”.
The petitioners had responded to the advertisement for various examinations to be conducted by the JKSSB.