Respond promptly to job-related cases: Guv

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, August 14

Governor NN Vohra has asked the Chief Secretary to ensure that all Administrative Secretaries and the recruiting agencies responded promptly to every case in which courts had ordered ‘stay orders’ and ensure that the prolonged pendency of such cases did not delay the recruitment processes.

The Governor observed that the departments concerned, in coordination with the recruiting agencies and the law department and Advocate General should file time-bound replies in the courts concerned to ensure against any avoidable delay in the recruitments.

The Governor said this while chairing separate meetings at the civil secretariat here on Monday evening to review the status of vacancies and progress of recruitment in the health and medical education and school education departments.

Chairman, J&K Public Service Commission (JKPSC), Latief-u-Zaman Deva, Advisers to the Governor, Chief Secretary and other senior officials attended the meeting.

The JKPSC Chairman and the Chairman of the J&K Services Selection Board briefed the Governor in detail about the important court cases and their current status. Officials said around 800 cases pertaining to the SSB and 500 cases pertaining to the JKPSC were pending in courts.

Vohra asked the Chief Secretary to designate officers who would be responsible for ensuring constant review to ensure that replies were timely filed in the courts. He also directed prompt action to deal with the grievances of those who had gone to courts and ensure that litigations were reduced to a minimum.

“Instead of getting entangled in litigations, efforts should be made to resolve the grievances/complaints from within the departmental redress systems,” he observed. He said the onus also lied on the Law Officers who needed to guide the government as well as the departments concerned about the merits of the claims raised by the employees who had sought legal redress.

The Governor issued instructions that in all cases where appeals had to be filed by the departments, the Administrative Secretaries shall ensure that such action was taken well within the stipulated time-frame. The Governor directed the heads of departments to regularly monitor the progress of court cases and take appropriate measures to address every pending case.