Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Mar 27: The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Jammu Bench, has directed the Jammu & Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB) to re-evaluate the merit of petitioners for the post of Naib Tehsildar, ensuring parity with previous court orders in similar cases.
The petitioners, Sanjeeb Kumar, Atul Khajuria, and Narinder Kumar, had challenged the selection process initiated through multiple advertisements since 2002. They contended that the written test conducted on April 20, 2008, contained vague and incorrect questions. Further, they alleged that 29 selected candidates did not meet the eligibility criteria of having Urdu as a subject in matriculation.
A previous case, WP(S) No. 487/2009, led to an expert committee review, which identified 23 flawed questions in the examination. The J&K High Court, in its judgment dated December 31, 2014, had directed the deletion of these questions, followed by re-evaluation of candidates. This led to a revised merit list and appointments. However, the petitioners in the present case were not included in that review.
The tribunal found merit in the petitioners’ claim, stating that the Government’s selective implementation of the 2014 judgment violated principles of fairness and equal opportunity. Citing a similar judgment in TA 1101/2020 (Sahil Khajuria & Ors v. UT of J&K), the tribunal ruled that the petitioners must be treated at par with those who benefited from the earlier judgment.
Accordingly, the tribunal has ordered the respondents to reassess the petitioners’ scores after deleting the 23 flawed questions and to consider them for appointment as Naib Tehsildars within three months.
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