HC vacates stay on recruitment of 1395 Panchayat Secretaries

Srinagar, Apr 25:  The High Court of J&K and Ladakh Thursday vacated the stay on recruitment of 1395 Panchayat Secretary posts by JKSSB in 19 districts of Jammu and Kashmir and directed the board to complete the process.

A bench of Justice Wasim Sadiq Nargal vacated the stay after it observed that no fruitful purpose would be served to extend the interim directions passed by the court on a batch of petitions on 16 and 24 June 2022.

“After hearing learned counsel for the parties, this court thinks 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.

Vacating the interim directions, the court directed the SSB to finalise the selection process, expeditiously.

“However, the selection and appointment of the selected candidates shall be subject to the outcome of the instant petitions,” it said.

The petitioners were engaged as Gram Rozgar Sevak (GRS) on a contractual basis for one year under a scheme - Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA).

They are seeking their claim based on a proposed amendment in J&K Rural Development (Sub-ordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 2007, whereby the post of GRS has been proposed to be incorporated in Clause V and Category D as one of the feeding cadre posts for promotion to the post of Panchayat Secretary and VLWs.

The petitioner contends 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 3 of 2022) dated May 26, 2022, issued by the JKSSB for direct recruitment to 1395 district cadre posts of Panchayat Secretary in 19 districts under the Department of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

“Since the proposal for amendment of the rules was not agreed by the department, then the posts of VLWs and MPWs are required to be filled up following the existing Rules of 2007 issued vide SRO-178 dated May 9, 2007,” the court said.

“It is very strange that the petitioners instead of participating in the selection process, have filed the instant writ petitions 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. “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 a dearth of staff and has prayed for vacation of the interim orders,” the court said.

It said that even otherwise, 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 regularisation”.

“Thus, it can safely be concluded that the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board being a creature of the statute, is under an obligation to carry out and finalize the selection process for the advertised posts strictly following the rules and regulations occupying the field and not as per the draft proposal, which has since been rejected by the competent authority,” the court said.

Subsequently, the court vacated interim directions passed by the court vide orders dated June 16, 2022, and June 24, 2022, and directed the SSB to finalise the selection process expeditiously.