HC nod to fill up post, aggrieved candidate's chase to continue

Srinagar, Nov 24: The High Court of J&K and Ladakh has asked authorities to fill up a post of Naib Tehsildar that was earlier ordered to be reserved by it given a candidate’s contention that his examination centre was changed without his information.

A division bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Puneet Gupta has issued post admission notice to authorities on the plea challenging Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) dismissal of an application by a candidate who had claimed having not been informed about change of his centre for the examination of the Naib Tehsildar in 2018 and is selection against the post.

Counsel for Aroosa Mirza of Rajouri, the private respondent whose selection was put on hold, advocate Faizan Majid Bhat along with Sajid Ahmad submitted before the court that no order could be issued against Aroosa as she figured in the merit list and had secured her position in the select list.

In response to this contention, the court modified the earlier order whereby post against which she was selected was reserved for the aggrieved candidate who had claimed that he was not informed well in time about the change of his examination centre due to which he could not reach on time at the changed centre.

“In the meantime, the post against which respondent No. 6 (Aroosa Mirza of Rajouri) has been selected shall be filled up in accordance with law, however, one post as may be available as on date or that which would fall vacant in future, shall be reserved,” the court said after hearing Aroosa’s counsel.

The notice was accepted by senior AAG Abdul Rashid Malik on behalf of the government.

The division bench also called for the record related to the case from the Central Administrative Tribunal.

In his plea before the CAT, the petitioner submitted that he had applied, under RBA category, against the post of Naib Tehsildar advertised by the JKSSB on January 24, 2015.

He downloaded the information regarding the place of examination centre allocated by the JKSSRB and came to know that he has to appear in the written examination on 29 April 2018 at Nusrat UI Islam High School, Anantnag. When he went to appear in the examination on the date, the petitioner came to know that the centre had been changed to Sock Kral College of Education, Pulwama.

The petitioner said that he lost one and half hours in traveling and was allowed in the examination under the direction of DDC, Pulwama for only half an hour in which he answered 81 questions out of 120.

However, the authorities stated that the petitioner along with 10,000 other candidates was also informed on his mobile number 18 days prior to the date of examination through SMS. The authorities further submitted that since JKSSB has adopted technology in the process of Admit Card issuance, the Board is in possession of the browsing/login history of the petitioner which shows that he had taken a print out of the updated Admit Card on 16 April 2018, which clearly shows that the petitioner had the knowledge of change made in his examination centre much in advance. After hearing both sides, the CAT had dismissed the application 16 June 2022.

The Court ordered listing of the plea for final hearing on November 28.