HC to hear petition seeking re-conduct of Prelim Exam on Sept 18
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Sept 15: In a major development, the Crime Branch has completed preliminary enquiry into forgery of policy documents of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission and is all set to formally lodge FIR for detailed investigation into the illegalities, which have eroded the credibility of the highest recruiting agency of the State. In the meanwhile, State High Court will hear on September 18 (Monday) a petition filed by aggrieved candidates seeking re-conduct of KAS Preliminary Examination on various grounds besides detailed inquiry in a time bound manner so as to unmask those involved in tampering case.
Reliable sources told EXCELSIOR that Crime Branch has completed preliminary enquiry into the complaint regarding forgery of policy documents of Public Service Commission and presently the material evidences collected by the Investigating Officer are being examined by a team of senior officers of the premier investigating agency of Jammu and Kashmir.
During preliminary enquiry statements of almost all the sitting Members of the Public Service Commission as well as former Secretary and Controller of Examinations of the Commission Shakeel-ul-Rehman were recorded by the Investigating Officer, sources said while disclosing that even IO has recorded the statement of former Member of the Commission Tashi Dorje whose signatures on the policy documents have been found tampered with.
“There is sufficient material which prima-facie establishes that forgery has been committed with the ulterior motives”, sources said, adding “what to talk of other evidences the statement of former PSC Member Tashi Dorje can only be made ground for registration of FIR”. They disclosed that after completion of process of examination of evidences by the senior officers of the Crime Branch a formal FIR will be lodged under relevant sections of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC) in next few days.
It is pertinent to mention here that the complaint before the Crime Branch is based on the revelations made by the EXCELSIOR on April 23, 2017 and June 4, 2017 under titles “Transparency, fairness at stake in PSC due to nexus of certain officers” and “Policy documents of J&K PSC found forged to maintain deep rooted nexus”.
As already reported exclusively by EXCELSIOR, the Forensic Science Laboratory of J&K has established twice forgery of policy documents of Public Service Commission and this is the major evidence before the Crime Branch for registration of FIR.
In the Report No. 32/ Doc/ FSL/ 2017 dated May 22, 2017, which was also exclusively published by EXCELSIOR, the FSL had established forgery of signature of former PSC Member Tashi Dorje. However, the PSC Chairman Abdul Latief-u-Zaman Deva preferred to get the documents in question re-examined and accordingly approached Director FSL.
However, a three-member committee constituted by the Director FSL corroborated the earlier report of Laboratory whereby forgery of policy documents of PSC was clearly established. Much to the surprise of each and every citizen of the State even after establishment of forgery twice by the FSL the Commission chose not to get the FIR registered and rather started making attempts to hush up the matter.
“Now, all eyes are on the Crime Branch as it would be only after registration of FIR that all those involved in the forgery would get exposed and subsequently punished under law”, sources said, adding “fair investigation is imperative as this incident has eroded the credibility of the highest recruiting agency of Jammu and Kashmir”.
It may be recalled that soon after appointment of new Chairman and Members of the Public Service Commission (PSC), a meeting of the major recruiting agency was convened on July 28, 2015 and several decisions were taken aimed at exercising utmost impartiality, objectivity and efficiency in its functioning.
It was decided to re-engage Hakim Ghulam Jeelani, former Secretary Services Selection Board and M A Bhat, former Under Secretary of the Public Service Commission as consultants only for a period of six months and thereafter new consultants will be engaged. This decision was taken on the ground that these consultants were working in the Commission for more than five years and new faces should be inducted so as to allay apprehensions from different quarters about the prevailing nexus in the Commission.
However, later it was found that minutes of meeting held on July 28, 2015 were forged on the issue of engagement of consultants and Chairman was given powers to extend engagement of consultants from time to time.
Meanwhile, High Court Jammu Wing will hear on September 18, 2017 (Monday), a petition filed by aggrieved candidates seeking re-conduct of Jammu and Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS) Preliminary Exams on various grounds besides completion of probe into forgery of policy documents of PSC in a time bound manner.
The petition was listed for hearing today but it could not be taken up and now it will come up for hearing on Monday, sources said while disclosing that in the petition deletion of Rule 12(B) of J&K Public Service Commission (Conduct of Examination) Rules, 2005 has also been challenged.
The PSC had incorporated this Rule, which provides for publishing of key immediately after the KAS examination. But later Rule 12(B) was deleted on the ground that this Rule would open flood-gates of litigations.
“On one side the PSC says that Rules don’t permit making public the key of the examination but on the other side it allowed certain candidates to go through the same which brought to the fore glaring mistakes in the questions and answers”, sources said while quoting the petition. The petitioners are seeking directions for allowing any interested candidate to go through the key. Moreover, the petitioners have challenged re-evaluation of results as has been done by the PSC on the reports of the experts.
“The petitioners are also seeking re-conduct of Preliminary Examinations by making relevant Rule as ground for the same”, sources said, adding “the Rules say that if there are mistakes more than 10% in the questions then examination has to be re-conducted”.
“Since it was a combined examination and conducted on a particular date holding of re-examination for a particular subject is not possible at all as such entire Preliminary Exam shall be conducted afresh so as to restore the faith of the people in the Public Service Commission”, the petitioners said.
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