RTI query: J&K Bank refuses to furnish merit list of 1,450 BA, PO posts

The bank claims final result sheet of scrapped selection process withheld by IBPS

The Jammu and Kashmir Bank Limited has refused to furnish the merit list for 1,450 posts of banking associates (1,200) and probationary officers (250) to an RTI activist.

While responding to an RTI application moved by eminent social activist Sukesh C Khajuria wherein he had sought a copy of the merit list/result sheet of all the candidates who had appeared in the written test for the post of banking associates and probationary officers conducted by the bank under the aegis of IBPS, the selection process for which was cancelled in February, 2020, by the J&K government, the public information officer has disclosed that J&K Bank does not have the information asked by the applicant.

In its reply, the bank stated that the merit list/result sheet of all the candidates is held by the IBPS.

It was further disclosed in the RTI reply that the recruitment process for the posts of banking associates and probationary officers was scrapped by the J&K administration.

It is to be noted that the selection process for the said posts has been renotified by J&K Bank for fresh recruitment for 1,500 positions.

However, the said notification has been challenged by various aspirants before the J&K high court wherein the court has modified its earlier interim directions and permitted the bank to continue with the process of selection, however, has restrained it from issuing the final selection list without the HC’s permission.

On February 27, following the detection of “legal infirmities” in the recruitment of 250 probationary officers and 1,200 banking associates , Lieutenant Governor GC Murmu had scrapped the entire recruitment process and ordered a “fresh, new and fair norm-based transparent recruitment process to be completed within three months.”

However, all the applicants found eligible for recruitment in the last process, which was cancelled, shall be considered eligible for the fresh recruitment process, he had said.