Srinagar: The J&K High Court on Wednesday issued ten days’ notice to the government and to the J&K Bank to file response in a plea challenging the cancellation of selection process for the posts of Probationary Officers and Banking Associates. The plea also challenged the fresh recruitment notification issued by the J&K Bank on June 1.
Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey while hearing the plea of 288 aggrieved candidates directed the bank to postpone the last date for online registration of candidates, while the court hears the matter.
Justice Magrey said, “With a view to securing the interests of the petitioners as well as to ensure that the prospective candidates are not put to any inconvenience later on, it would be appropriate for the Bank to issue a notice postponing the date of availability of the link for registration of candidature by the prospective candidates till further orders from the Court. It is, accordingly, so ordered.”
On the issue of maintainability of the petition, the court requested assistance of Advocate General DC Raina in determining an important question of law related to general public importance.
Raising a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the plea, Khan Roshan Khayal, an officer of J&K Bank working in its Legal Section, submitted that the J&K Bank Limited is not a State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution.
He invited the attention of the court to the Full Bench Decision of the J&K High Court in Firdous Ahmad Tanki vs the J&K Bank Ltd (2006), wherein the majority view taken was that the Bank was neither the State nor an authority or instrumentality of the State within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution of India. Khayal submitted that the bank was not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.
However, on behalf of petitioners, Counsel Jahangir Iqbal submitted that the judgment of the Full Bench was distinguishable as the factors which formed the basis for such declaration have changed, based on the fact that the share capital of the Bank was only 53% which is now 68.18%.
He submitted that in view of the changed circumstances, the financial and administrative control of the J&K Bank is now with the Government.
He also referred to the impugned notice by President-HR of the Bank cancelling the selection process. “This notice reads that approval to the cancellation of the selection process was accorded by the Board of Directors of the Bank on 15 April, 2020, in pursuance of directions of the J&K’s Administrative Council,” he said.
Counsel Iqbal also referred to a communication dated 18 May 2020 from In-charge Information Officer, J&K Bank, to one petitioner, Sarish Jolly, furnishing information under RTI.
“Therein the candidate has been apprised that the order regarding the scrapping of PO and BAS Exam has been issued by the Government, not by the Bank, thus the ownership of this order lies with the Government,” the petitioner counsel submitted.
After hearing both the parties, the court observed that the notice dated 15 April revealed that the decision had actually been taken by the Administrative Council of J&K.

NUSRAT SIDIQ