High Court puts state on notice

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 13

The procedure adopted by the Haryana Government for recommending names for posts of HCS (Executive Branch) has come under the judicial scanner. Acting on a petition alleging that the procedure was completely illegal, arbitrary and in “complete violation of statutory rules”, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has put the state on notice.

The notice for October 29 by Justice Mahesh Grover came on the petition filed by Vijay Kumar Yadav and other petitioners against Haryana and other respondents.

Appearing on behalf of the petitioners, senior advocate Gurminder Singh and counsel RPS Bara contended that Rule 9 of the HCS(Executive Branch) Rules, 2008, envisaged recommendation of names of district revenue officers/tehsildars for consideration to posts of HCS (Executive Branch).

The requirement was that they should have completed eight years of continuous government service. But the respondents were ignoring the petitioners on the ground that they had not rendered eight years of service as district revenue officers/tehsildars or combined as district revenue officers and tehsildars.

It was added the action which deprived the petitioners of being considered for the post was liable to be set aside as it was taken with a motivated intension. The tailor-made criteria left seven persons eligible for six posts, giving them a clear run for appointment. The court was told that the petitioners were working in Haryana as tehsildars and were directly appointed as naib tehsildars way back in 1996.