Srinagar: Kashmir High Court Bar Association Srinagar on Friday expresses its serious concern over the selection of eight candidates against the post of Munsiff from Jammu and only three from Kashmir by the Public Service Commission, describing it as regionally imbalanced and unfair.
The lawyers body said that while selecting the candidates against the 11 posts of Munsiffs advertised vide notification on 03 February 2017, the PSC should not have created the regional imbalance. “It having however not done so, it is clear that the same has been done on malafide and extraneous consideration which is highly deplorable.”
In terms of advertisement notification dated 03.02.2017, the PSC had invited applications for filing 11 posts of Munsiffs. In all 1869 candidates applied for their selection and appointment against the post of Munsiff but after rejecting many applications, the PSC conducted the written test of 1729 candidates, out of whom only 538 appeared in all the papers, the lawyers said in a statement issued here.
“The PSC thereafter selected 45 candidates for the interview out of whom 21 were Kashmiris. The interviews were held from 08.05.2018 to 12.05.2018, in which Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar, who had by then been recommended for appointment as Chief Justice of Manipur High Court, also participated,” the lawyers body said, “Normally Justice Ramalingam should not have been invited as an expert by the PSC because he had already been recommended for transfer as Chief Justice of Manipur High Court but it is surprising that despite knowing the said fact he was chosen and invited as an expert by the PSC.”
The PSC, after completing the process of selection issued the selection list May 19 whereunder eight candidates have been selected from Jammu province and only three candidates have been selected from Kashmir “which is highly unfair and is bound to have serious repercussions in maintaining the strength of judges in the subordinate judiciary in future.”
“ It hardly needs to be mentioned that out of the 03 candidates who have been selected from Kashmir province by the PSC, 02 candidates belong to RBA category and only 01 to OM Category. However out of 08 candidates selected from Jammu province, 07 are from OM Category and 01 from ST category,” the KHCBA said, adding, “ It is therefore quite manifest that as against the 07 candidates selected in OM Category from Jammu province, only 01 candidate from Kashmir province has been selected under the said category, which is also quite suspicious.”
The Bar Association demands that the selection list prepared by the PSC should be revisited by the Commission itself and in case it does not do so and forwards its recommendation to the government for issuing the orders of appointment in favour of the selected candidates, the government should return the recommendations back to the commission for a fresh look and with a direction to prepare the list keeping in view the regional aspirations of the State.
