HC bars draftsman selections until Govt frames rules

Srinagar, Apr 3:  The High Court of J&K and Ladakh Wednesday directed the government not to carry out any selection or appointment to the post of draftsman until recruitment rules are framed by it to settle the controversy once and for all.

In a judgment delivered in response to a related plea, a Division Bench of Justice Rajnesh Oswal and Justice Moksha Khajuria Kazmi directed the official respondent No 1 (J&K UT through Public Works R&B Department) and respondent No 2 (Principal Secretary to Government, Jal Shakti Department) to constitute a team of experts for examining the minimum qualification prescribed for the post of draftsman in terms of Recruitment Rules of 1997 concerning its term and field of diploma of the candidates in its right perspective.

“The committee to be constituted by respondents No 1 and 2 are also directed to examine and clarify the intent of the rule-making authority in the inclusion of three-year diploma holders for 10 percent quota prescribed for the post of Junior Engineers Grade II as per Recruitment Rules of 1997,” said the judgment that begins with Lord Denning’s quote, “It would be idle to expect every statutory provision to be drafted with divine prescience and perfect clarity.”

The court also directed the committee to submit its recommendations after obtaining the consensus of the experts to the government within a month from the date of passing of this order.

“The government is directed to take a final decision in terms of Rule 13 of the Recruitment Rules of 1997 (Jammu and Kashmir Engineering Subordinate Service, Recruitment Rules,1997), to settle the controversy once and for all, within a month thereafter,” the court said.

However, the court made clear that till the final decision of the government, in compliance with the observations made above is taken, no selection or appointment to the post of draftsman would be carried out by the authorities.

The court did not interfere with the judgment and order passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) on June 30, 2022, dismissing the plea against the selections made by the JKSSB following an advertisement notification (bearing No 05 of 2020 dated October 24, 2020), for filling up 34 posts of Draftsman (Civil), PWD (R&B) UT Cadre.

The court issued these directions after it concluded that the respondents had been appointed and were discharging their duties from the last two years against the post of draftsman based on the minimum qualification interpreted by respondents as two years draftsman certificate and two years diploma in draftsman from government recognised institute and two petitioners in the instant petition have also been selected based on same minimum qualification.

“Therefore, it will not be proper to quash the selection or appointment of the candidates for no fault on their part,” the court said. “To this extent, we are not interfering with the impugned order.”
It noted that the record reveals that respondents have been adhering to this interpretation since 2014 after the decision was taken by the experts concerning Quantity Surveying only.

“As far as the interpretation of the minimum qualification prescribed for the post of draftsman as per Recruitment Rules of 1997, is concerned the rules are completely silent insofar as far as it relates to the term and field of the diploma,” the court said.

It underscored that the rule-making authority could preconceive the difficulties which could arise in the interpretation of the rules which was the reason Rule 13 was incorporated into the Recruitment Rules of 1997.

“This court is not an expert on the subject and as such this court is extremely reluctant to substitute its views. It is within the domain of an expert to examine the actual intent of the rule-making authority more so when the government has already been provided an authority to take a final decision in terms of Rule 13 of the Recruitment Rules of 1997,” the court said.

Sr AAG Abdul Rashid Malik, GA Ilyas Nazir, and GA Jahangir Dar represented official respondents while Mir Suhail represented the private respondents (selected candidates).