Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, July 21: High Court today closed contempt proceedings filed against the Chairman Services Selection Board (SSB) for not finalizing the process of selection to the posts of Assistant Information Officers (AIOs) in view of a policy decision of the Government with regard to withdrawal of all such posts on which selection was not finalized.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice N Kotiswar Singh and Justice Javed Iqbal Wani closed the contempt proceedings against Chairman SSB-Khalid Jehangir. “We are of the opinion that no contempt is made out against the respondent and the contempt proceeding is, accordingly, closed and contempt notice stands discharged”, DB concluded.
The contempt proceedings were initiated for implementation of the DB verdict whereby the court had declared the selection process of 29 Assistant Information Officers by SSB as invalid with the further direction to SSB to ensure that the selection process as directed is expeditiously concluded.
The selection list issued by SSB way back in the year 2013 was challenged by way of a writ petition and after discussing various aspects of the case, the writ court in its judgment had concluded that prejudice to petitioners due to the change in criteria in the middle of the selection process and methodology on the date of the Aptitude test and interview held by the Board on October 2011.
The DB after having considered the nature of the order passed by the Division Bench as also the law relating to the rights of a selected candidate said that such selected candidate does not have an indefeasible right to be appointed and since a policy decision was taken by the administration at the higher level before such a right has accrued to the petitioners for getting appointed,
“Certainly, to the extent, the respondent SSB did not finalize the selection process; one may say that the order of the Division Bench was not complied with. However, in the present case, it would not make much difference for the reason that even if the selection process was finalized, the petitioners could not have been given appointment as there was no such direction from the Court”, DB said.
These findings were given by the bench after the Sr. AAG Mohsin S. Qadri appearing on behalf of Chairman SSB submitted that though the SSB authorities were proceeding to comply with the direction issued by the Division Bench, because of the policy decision taken by the Administration on 29.01.2022, the SSB could not proceed with the recruitment process as directed by the Division Bench of this Court.
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