HC issues contempt notice to SSB
Last Updated on : 3 Dec,2017 | Source :
UNT News Desk
Srinagar:The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has issued notices to the Services Selection Board (SSB) and other respondents in a contempt petition questioning the inordinate delay in selection of 29 information officers.
The court has given respondents two weeks to explain the “inordinate delay” in implementing the High Court verdicts, wherein the authorities were asked to finalise the process of selection of the eligible candidates, who had applied in response to three advertisement notices.
The petition filed by the aggrieved candidates through their lawyer Ashraf Wani was listed today before a division bench of Justice Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey.
Earlier on February 20, 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed an appeal of the J&K Government while upholding the HC verdict, observing that it (apex court) did “not see any ground to interfere with the impugned order(s).”
The SSB had issued three different notifications in 2006, 2008 and 2010, inviting applications for the posts of Assistant Information Officer (AIO) Grade-II. Subsequently, the SSB issued a provisional selection list on January 21, 2012.
However, the selection list of 29 information officers was quashed by Justice Hasnain Masoodi in the same year, holding that a prejudice had been caused to the petitioners due to the change in criteria in the middle of the selection process and methodology on the date of the aptitude test and interview. This verdict was upheld by a division bench of Justices Mohammad Yaqoob Mir and Janak Raj Kotwal in May 2013.
The court had directed the SSB to finalise the selection process promptly.
The High Court had asked the board to first constitute the committees as required under Rule 6(4) of the Rules of 2010 and fix the criteria in tune with Rule 14.
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