HC orders appointment of candidate as Munsiff

J&K High Court has directed the government to appoint a candidate, Mudasir Bashir as Munsiff against a post that had fallen vacant after another candidate who had figured in the select list of Public Service Commission did not join.  

A bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar directed J&K’s  Law Department to write within two weeks a formal communication to PSC for forwarding the name of Mudasir Bashir and with its recommendation appoint him against the post that had fallen vacant. 

   

The court asked PSC to conduct medical test of the petitioner and recommend his appointment as Munsif to the department of Law, if found fit.  

“The Government shall issue the formal order of appointment of the petitioner as Munsiff within four weeks from the date of receipt of recommendations from the High Court,” the court said.

The petitioner had applied in terms of a notification dated 30 5 2018 issued by the PSC for the selection of  42 posts of Civil Judge /Munsiff . 

In the select list for Open Merit Category candidates issued by the PSC Mudasir was given over all rank of 24 with aggregate score of 580 marks while other candidate with the same aggregate score was, however, ranked 23rd and figured as a last candidate in the Open Merit Category.

The petitioner was denied selection on the ground that the tie between him and the other candidate was broken by applying Rule 51-A of the selection Rules.

The petitioner with lesser points in the viva voce was placed below the last selected candidate under open merit. 

 While the petitioner through advocate Shafqat Nazir had challenged Rule 51-A being arbitrary and against article 14 of constitution, he did not urge this ground after one of the selected candidates did not join. He sought appointment against the same vacancy.    

While the bench said the Department of Law, on receipt of recommendation from the PSC shall forward it to the High Court for approval, it asked the High Court to consider the matter and make appropriate recommendations to Law Department  as soon as possible for appointment of the petitioner. “We, however, leave it to the High Court to devise a way to impart the pre-induction training to the petitioner, if required, “the court said. 

He had contended that in Open Merit he being next in the order of merit was entitled to be selected and appointed against the post which fallen vacant. Notably, the PSC had not framed the wait list prompting the petitioner to approach High Court. 

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