Chandigarh, April 9
The Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) has decided to hold the examination for filling 63 vacant posts of Punjab Civil Service (Judicial) from April 25 to 29. According to sources, a decision to this effect was taken recently by the PPSC following a go-ahead by the Punjab Cabinet.
It will be the first time after the unearthing of the alleged cash-for-job scam involving former PPSC Chairman Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu that the PPSC is holding the exam.
An affidavit submitted in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by the Punjab Government sometime back said 63 posts of judicial officers in subordinate judiciary were lying vacant in Punjab.
During the hearing of a PIL filed by Mandeep Mittal and Rajneesh Kumar, LLM students of Panjab University, seeking issuance of directions to Punjab and Haryana to ensure time-bound appointment of adequate number of judicial officers in the subordinate judiciary, the high court had come down heavily on the Punjab Government for failing to fill the posts.
The petitioners had also told the court that the high court, in a suo motu order, had directed the two states to fill the vacancies in subordinate judiciary on a yearly basis by holding regular examination.
After getting flak from the high court, the government asked the PPSC
to make selections for the vacant posts as the earliest.However, the PPSC is learnt to have refused to shift the venue of the examination from Patiala, where the PPSC is headquartered, to Chandigarh.
The PPSC has said that the printing machine and other material can’t be moved from Patiala to Chandigarh. It has also pointed out that the question papers of a particular subject are printed the same day when the examination is to be held and in case the question papers are moved from Patiala to Chandigarh daily, the possibility of leakage will also increase.
It may be recalled that a number of selections made by the PPSC during the chairmanship of Ravinderpal Singh Sidhu were scrapped on the ground that these were tainted. Later, a re-examination to fill some of the posts was held by the high court.
However, cases filed by many of the ousted “successful” PCS (Judicial) officers are still pending in various courts.
They include cases where the petitioners have alleged that even the ouster of tainted candidates was done on a selective basis.
Meanwhile, a member of the PPSC told The Tribune that “more than adequate” arrangements have been made to ensure transparency in the examination.
“Nothing of the sort that happened when Mr Sidhu was the Chairman would be allowed to happen. We have made foolproof arrangements,” the member asserted.
