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Meghalaya high court gives govt 3 weeks for roster system in recruitment
The high court also reminded the Meghalaya government that the roster system is relevant only for entry-level posts unless reservation is also provided for in promotion.
SHILLONG: The Meghalaya high court on Wednesday granted three weeks’ time for the state government to introduce the roster system for implementation of the job reservation policy.
Hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the matter, the two-member bench headed by chief justice Sanjib Banerjee said, “The State seeks some time to introduce the roster system. Accordingly, let the matter stand over for three weeks.”
The matter was initially admitted as a petition by one Ms ZR Marak, following which the bench chose to take it up in the form of a PIL.
The court also reminded the state government that the roster system is relevant only for entry-level posts unless reservation is also provided for in promotion.
“Further, to ascertain what categories of persons would be next recruited, it is necessary to formulate a roster and apply the roster to all entry-level posts since the time the reservation policy came into effect, including cadres that were born after the reservation policy came into effect,” it said.
“Upon ascertaining the position in respect of each entry-level post, will it be possible to assess how the discrepancies, if any, may be addressed by inviting more applications in future recruitments from categories which have been under-represented so that at a given point of time there is no further discrepancy,” the court added.
Acknowledging that it is, no doubt, an enormous task for the exercise to be conducted for every entry-level post across government offices, including other government organisations where the reservation policy applies, the court said that the same exercise has to be completed as far as the high court and the district judiciary are concerned within a fortnight from date.
The next hearing will be held on May 11.
Earlier on April 5, the bench chastised the government and ordered forthwith, “The further recruitment processes for all posts in the State will remain stayed in the sense that no further appointments will be made until the roster system is put in place,” adding, “This will apply across state government agencies and instrumentalities in the state wherever the reservation policy is in vogue.”
The bench warned that the absence of any roster system leaves open possibilities of nepotism and arbitrariness and worse forms of subversions, while acknowledging the absence of a roster system as “deplorable state of affairs”.
Lashing against bureaucrats of the state, the court said it was “alarming” that despite 50 years of statehood and an equal number of years of reservation in government jobs, the roster system was absent. “This bench was constrained to raise a question in course of a recent matter as to how the reservation policy could be implemented without a roster,” it said.
Advocate general Amit Kumar, who was present in the court during the hearing yesterday, acknowledged that reservation cannot be implemented without a roster.
The court expressed shock that the same “distressing feature” existed while filling up for various posts in the high court over the last decade of its existence.
The court has also taken note of the “mistakes” in the notifications and official memoranda relied upon by the government and said, “Mistakes that should not have happened if proper mind was applied to the matters in issue.”
