Srinagar: The High Court on Wednesday deferred further consideration on a plea against combined competitive (mains) examination 2016 till a clarification by the Supreme Court in the matter.
“We defer further consideration of the matter till clarification is sought either by Public Service Commission or by any aggrieved party from the Supreme Court as to whether in view of the pendency of Special Leave Petition this court can proceed to deal with the preliminary objection regarding maintainability of PIL,” said a division bench of Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey and Justice Sanjeev Kumar, two days after reserving the order after hearing Azahar-ul-Amin, standing counsel for J&K Public Service Commission and the counsels on behalf of aggrieved candidates.
On 21 December 2018, the High Court had stayed the selection process of Kashmir Administrative Service examination 2016 after hearing a group of aggrieved candidates. The J&K PSC had conducted the combined competitive (mains) examination from July 24 to August 8 last year.
While hearing its suo motto Public Interest Litigation, the court on 21 December last year had directed the PSC to file a detailed counter-affidavit to the objections raised by the aggrieved candidates.
The state’s premier recruitment body was also directed to explain why the petition shouldn’t be admitted.
The PSC however approached the Supreme Court against the High Court order. On January 21, the apex court allowed the J&K PSC to carry out further selection process in the KAS examination 2016 but barred the recruitment agency from making the appointment.
The SC however, made it clear that the high court would be free to decide the suo-motu Public Interest Litigation on merits on the date fixed.
Out of 6427 candidates who had appeared in the KAS mains examination 2016, 963 were declared to have qualified for the personality test and viva-voice.
