Srinagar, Jan 28: The J&K High Court on Monday reserved its order on a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging irregularities in the conduct of examination for Kashmir Administrative Service (Mains) by the State Public Service Commission (PSC) in August past year.
Justices A M Magrey and Sanjeev Kumar reserved the order on the petition after hearing the concerned parties and suggestions by Amicus Curie.
The judgment shall decide the future of hundreds of KAS aspirants who had appeared in the final examination for the states’ prestigious civil services.
The Supreme Court had last week allowed the Commission to carry out further selection process in the KAS examination notified in 2016. The court, however, had barred it from recommending any appointments to the government in the matter.
“As an interim order, the selection process can be completed but no appointment will be made,” said a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna after hearing the counsel for PSC.
The PSC had challenged the J&K High Court’s order before the apex court.
While the Supreme Court issued a notice to the respondents, it, however, made it clear that J&K High Court would be free to decide the suo-motu petition on merits.
Five weeks ago, the High Court had stayed the selection process of the KAS examination after hearing a group of aggrieved candidates who had alleged irregularities in the conduct of examination.
The PSC had last year declared the result of the KAS (mains) examination and out of 6427 candidates who had appeared in the examination, 963 were declared qualified for the personality test and viva-voice.
The High Court had issued notice to PSC and asked it to file a detailed counter-affidavit to the objections raised by the aggrieved candidates.
The PSC, the candidates alleged, had resorted to “arbitrary scaling and moderation which wasn’t provided in the actual notification when the posts were advertised for the conduct of examination”.
The aggrieved candidates also placed before the court a representation with signatures of 83 applicants.
The court appointed senior advocate Z A Shah as Amicus Curiae to assist it in the matter.
Shah was supposed to examine the matter and place suitable written submissions before the court by January 28.
