Jammu and Kashmir High Court: A Single Judge Bench of Sanjeev Kumar, J., allowed a writ petition filed against the order of Respondent 1 whereby Respondent’s 3 & 4 were appointed to the post of lecturer in the health and medical department through back door entry.
The main issue that arose before the Court was whether the order of appointment and subsequent order of promotion, passed by the respondent authorities was valid?
The Court observed that in the case of J&K Public Service Commission v. Narinder Mohan; 1994 (2) SCC 630, it was held by the Supreme Court that appointment to gazetted posts should be only done through direct recruitment and the public service commission must fill up 100% of such posts through direct recruitment. In case if there is no exception given under the rules as per which the appointments are done, then no departure must be made from the general rule of completing the recruitment process through public service commission.
The Court held that the appointment of respondent 3 & 4 was contrary to the provisions of J&K Medical Education (Gazetted) Services Recruitment Rules, 1979 and Section 133 (Article 320 of the Constitution of India) of the J&K Constitution, which makes it mandatory for the Government to have consultation with the Public Service Commission in the matter of appointment of the employees to the Gazetted Services of the State. However, since 17 years had passed since the appointment of respondents and they were also given due promotions, hence the Court did not interfere with their respective positions. The Court directed the respondent 1 to treat the petitioner senior to the respondents 3 & 4 and provide him all the consequential benefits of assistant professor with effect from 2001. Resultantly, the Court allowed the petition. [Sudha Sharma v. State of J&K,2018 SCC OnLine J&K 771, order dated 25-10-2018]