Chandigarh, February 1, 2011. Hon’ble Mr. Justice Mahesh Grover of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today issued notice of motion to the State of Haryana, Members of the Haryana State Public Service Commission & others for April 6, 2011 on a writ petition filed by Sh. Lalit Jain and others, challenging the validity of the Selections made by the Haryana State Public Service Commission to Haryana Civil Services and allied services on January 4, 2011. The Court also ordered that the appointment of selected candidates shall be subject to the outcome of the writ petition.
Mr. Satya Pal Jain, Senior Advocate with Mr. Dheeraj Jain, Advocate submitted that entire selection process was vitiated with malafide, favouritism and nepotism. He also said that selected candidates include close relatives of atleast 3 out of 5 members of the Haryana State Public Service Commission, who constituted the Selection Committee. Not only this, the close relatives of the Chief Minister Haryana, his wife, MPs and Senior Officers of the Haryana Government are also in the selection list. He brought to the notice of the Court that though all the petitioners had secured more than 60% marks in the written test but they were brought down in the final list by giving them around 10% to 25% marks in the interview. On the other most of the selected candidates especially belonging to the influential families who were getting below 60% marks in the written test were given around 80% to 90% marks in the interview to enable them to jump the cut off line.
Mr. Jain also said that the Public Service Commission is a repository of the faith reposed in it by the Constitution of India and as such they are supposed to act in the matter of making selections to the Public posts with utmost honesty, impartiality, objectivity judiciously and with un-impeccable integrity. However, the display of the entire election process adopted by the members of Haryana State Public Service Commission, only betrays the faith that was reposed in them. He also said that earlier also, a similar type of selections were challenged in the High Court and a Division Bench of the High Court has referred the entire selection process for investigation to a retired Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court.
Mr. Jain also referred to various newspapers reports relating to favouritism and nepotism in the selections. He said that in this view of the matter, the entire selection process may be quashed and the selections be ordered to be made afresh, keeping in view only the merits of the candidates and not their relations with the High ups in the Haryana Government.