The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has imposed a fine of ₹2 lakh on Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) and summoned the chairman of the commission for March 1.
The order was passed by the HC bench of justice Jaishree Thakur during the resumed hearing of a plea in which recruitment of constables in 2018-2019 is under challenge.
The court had summoned the commission’s secretary and chairperson for Thursday’s hearing, however, the latter could not come. During the hearing, the counsel for the commission sought adjournment to tabulate the result of recruitment as asked for by the court on an earlier occasion. However, the court was dissatisfied with the handling of matter by the commission.
During the hearing, it came to light that during the hearing on Wednesday, the court was informed that the entire record was not traceable. However, on Thursday, when secretary and chairman were summoned, the entire record was made available.
“It is surprising that after this court passed the order yesterday at 4pm directing the chairman and secretary of the commission to be present in Court today, entire record is made available today at 10 o’clock itself. Again, this court gets the impression that the respondent-commission did not take this court seriously and was deliberately trying to evade producing the record of those selected candidates, who have been given five additional marks under socio-economic criteria, while denying the same benefit to petitioners,” it observed.
{{/usCountry}}“It is surprising that after this court passed the order yesterday at 4pm directing the chairman and secretary of the commission to be present in Court today, entire record is made available today at 10 o’clock itself. Again, this court gets the impression that the respondent-commission did not take this court seriously and was deliberately trying to evade producing the record of those selected candidates, who have been given five additional marks under socio-economic criteria, while denying the same benefit to petitioners,” it observed.
{{/usCountry}}It recorded that the record produced would reflect that some candidates have been given marks for the similar certificate while others have been denied. “The explanation … given is that documents were scrutinised by different scrutiny committees and each committee applied its own yardstick to determine whether or not, a person would be eligible to additional marks under the socio-economic criteria,” it said, adding that the justification was “unpalatable”. The commission, which had been constituted for the purpose of streamlining public employment, in the opinion of this court, is failing to discharge its duty, it further remarked and fined the commission with ₹2 lakh and summoned chairman for March 1.