JAMMU: Supreme Court on Monday has permitted the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (PSC) to go ahead and complete the selection process for Jammu & Kashmir Combined Competitive Examination, batch 2016, (KAS-2016) albeit with the rider that the Government would not issue any appointment orders till disposal of the Special Leave Petition (SLP).
PSC has filed the SLP, challenging the Jammu and Kashmir High Court order of 21 December 2018 whereby the final process of holding the personality test of over 900 candidates, who had been declared successful in the KAS-2016 Main exam, had been stayed. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice Sanjeev Kumar had stayed the vive voce process on hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in Srinagar on 21 December 2018.
The DB had also appointed senior advocate Zaffar Ahmad Shah as amicus curie while as advocate Moksha Kazmi had been asked to assist him during hearing of the PIL.
While hearing PSC’s SLP on Monday, Chief Justice of Supreme Court Mr Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Mr Justice Sanjiv Khanna ordered issuance to notice to the respondents. “In the interim, we direct that selection process be completed and no appointment will be made”, said the order issued by the Bench.
While as the PSC’s job is to make selection of candidates, orders of appointment in favour of the selectees are subsequently issued by General Administration Department of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir.
“We make it clear that the High Court would be free to decide the suo motu Public Interest Litigation on merits on the date fixed”, said the Supreme Court order.
Chairman J&K PSC, Lateef-uz-Zamaan Deva, told STATE TIMES that admit cards to over 900 candidates would be issued tomorrow (Tuesday) for appearing in the viva voce. He said that immediately after PSC received copy of the Supreme Court order, it scheduled the viva voce for KAS-2016 from February 11, 2019.
PSC had notified the process of selection to fill up 277 vacancies (269 vacancies of Junior Scale KAS, 02 vacancies of J&K Police Gazetted Service and 06 vacancies of J&K Accounts Gazetted Service) on 18 June 2016. The Preliminary Examination, in which 36,681 candidates appeared, was conducted on 19 March 2017. The result notification, declaring 6,929 candidates as successful for Main Exam, was issued on 23 April 2017.
However, in an investigative story, STATE TIMES reported that as many as 24 questions or answers or both were wrong in the Preliminary question paper. Thereupon, PSC held an enquiry and found the STATE TIMES report correct. Even as it got a favourable order from J&K High Court, it cancelled the entire result notification of 23 April 2017 and ordered fresh evaluation. It was for the first time in its history of over 60 years that J&K PSC cancelled a result notification.
Fresh result notification was issued by PSC in August 2018. As many as 429 candidates, who had been declared as successful in the 23 April 2017 notification, fell out of the merit list. Simultaneously, 429 new candidates were declared as successful. However, as the PSC started the process of Main Exam, several aggrieved candidates filed petitions in J&K High Court. Finally, after several months, PSC was permitted to hold the Mains. When it declared the results of Main exam, again several aggrieved candidates raked up certain issues.
DB of J&K High Court stayed the process of viva voce which was challenged by PSC in an SLP in Supreme Court. Now the PSC is all set to complete the selection process and hold the viva voce from 11 February 2019. However, the appointment orders would be issued by J&K Government only after final disposal of the SLP at Supreme Court.
