PATNA: The
Patna high court on Tuesday scrapped the process of recruiting class-IV employees in subordinate courts through the 2009 rules which made only interview sufficient for selection.
The division bench of Chief Justice
Rajendra Menon and Justice
Rajeev Ranjan Prasad, while hearing the PIL filed by
Bihar Yuva Adhiwakta Kalyan Samiti, said the recruitment process must start afresh in accordance with The Bihar Civil Court Officers and Staff (recruitment, promotion, transfer and other service conditions) Rule, 2017.
In the old rules, recruitment was made only on the basis of interview taken by a competent authority, but the new rules make written test of 85 marks mandatory while interview carries 15 marks only.
The court, while disposing of the matter, also said the vigilance section of the high court, after completion of inquiry, would take a call on those candidates who have been issued appointment letters after selection through the older process.
The new rules were rolled out in the state on May 23 last year and the registrar general of the Patna high court was made the appointing authority. The rules were framed after the Supreme Court’s order on February 13, 2014 that directed all the high courts to re-examine the recruitment rules for high courts and subordinate courts in consideration with the Article 14 of the Constitution.
However, even the new rules came into effect, the process for recruitment of class-IV employees started under the old rules at district level. The petitioner alleged gross irregularities in the process as more than 1,000 candidates were being interviewed at some districts every day.
The high court, on October 16 last year, had directed the district and sessions judge of all subordinate courts to immediately stop the recruitment process with directions to neither declare any result of selection nor initiate the recruitment process.
However, even after that, the advertisement for recruitment was published in Kishanganj, which was again stayed by the high court.
Advocate general Lalit Kishore termed the Tuesday’s judgment as landmark one and said it’s an example for other high courts. “The high court order makes it clear that the mandate of Constitution can’t be overlooked in the matter of appointment, transparency, fair play and competence,” he said.
Satyabir Bharti represented the high court in the matter while Dinu Kumar, Ritika Rani and Arvind Kumar Sharma represented the petitioner.
