The High Court on Friday stayed selection process of Naib Tehsildars in which 70,000 aspirants appeared in a written test conducted on April 29 for 125 posts.
The court order put in abeyance the selection process by services selection board (SSB) on hearing a petition by a candidate who for writing the test had to travel a distance of 40 kilometers from the center where he was supposed to take the examination.
Justice Ali Muhammad Magrey ordered the stay after hearing advocate Shoukat Thakur argue on behalf of an aggrieved candidate.
Thakur said that the aggrieved aspirant Abdul Hamid was originally asked to appear the test at 1 pm at Nusrat-ul-Islam High School in Anantnag.
“He reached at the examination center at noon as per the instructions of Board and was told that his examination center has been changed from Nusrat-ul-Islam High School to SKM college Pulwama, which is 40 Kms away,” Hamid’s counsel said.
Shocked by this sudden last minute change of venue, Hamid rushed to SKM college but couldn’t reach there before 2:30 pm. Initially he was not allowed by the supervisory staff to sit in the examination for being late.
However, on the intervention of District Development Commissioner, the candidate was finally given only half an hour to write the test during which Hamid could attempt only 80 questions out of 120.
The petitioner pleaded that the circumstances imposed on him by the SSB for writing the test precluded a fair chance to succeed in the examination.
Agreeing with Hamid, the court observed “one can only imagine the agony, the petitioner would have undergone”.
The court directed secretary SSB to appear before it on May 7 and produce the examination records, before the case is heard again on May 14.