103 VACANCIES OF CLERK
103 VACANCIES OF CLERKFill posts on merit, orders HC Saurabh Malik/TNS
Chandigarh, November 14
Twentyfive years after the Haryana Selection Service Board issued an advertisement for the recruitment for clerks in various departments, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has directed the filling of the vacancies “strictly on the basis of merit”. In all, 103 vacancies will now be filled on the basis of the merit list prepared by the state of Haryana and other respondents.
A list of 5,373 candidates was declared on October 15, 1989, pursuant to the advertisement issued on July 22, 1987. Out of the total, candidates up to merit number 4,645 were appointed.
A single Judge directed the appointment of first 12 meritorious petitioners after 43 unsuccessful candidates filed a writ petition in the High Court. The order was passed on the premise that there were only 12 vacancies.
After a series of litigation, the matter ultimately went to the Supreme Court and was finally decided on August 19, 1998, in the case of Roshni Devi versus state of Haryana. Referring to the judgment in Roshni Devi’s case, the Bench of Chief Justice
Arjan Kumar Sikri and Justice Rakesh Kumar Jain asserted that “necessary directions have already been given in this very judgment”. A direction “clearly maintains that if the vacancies exist during the period in question, the appointments could be made strictly on the basis of their merit position in the list…. A cumulative reading of the directions
provides the complete answer and the course of action to be chartered.
“It is clear that the court had directed that the appointments are to be made strictly on the basis of merit in the list prepared by the state on the basis of selection. It does not leave any room for the original writ petitioners to argue that others who did not approach the court should be excluded”.
The Bench concluded: “We, thus, set aside the direction of the single Judge given in the order or other orders confined to the filling of the posts on the basis of the inter-se merit of the writ petitioners alone.
“Instead, it is directed that 103 vacancies which according to the state of Haryana still exist pertaining to the period October 15, 1989, to November 18, 1995, shall be filled strictly on the basis of the merit position in the list prepared by the respondents”.
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