‘No fundamental or legal right violated’

Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Tuesday dismissed the plea challenging the selection process of Principal, SKIMS Medical College, Bemina, on the grounds that none of the fundamental, legal or constitutional rights of the petitioners stand violated.

Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey said that on perusal of the records of the selection process submitted before this court, it is clear that the respondents are strictly following the mandate of rules.

Justice Magrey recorded that given this position, there is hardly any scope left for the court to go deep into the matter while exercising jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution.

“In that view of the matter and without making any further observations or recording any finding at this stage, which may otherwise prejudice the cause of either of the parties on culmination of the process of selection, the Court is unable to accept the contentions of the petitioners qua violation of the mandate of the relevant recruitment rules on the part of the Respondents in the ongoing process of selection against the post of Principal, SKIMS, Medical College & Hospital, Bemina,” the court recorded.

Meantime, the court directed that the relevant selection records, as produced before the court in a sealed envelope, be returned to Shah Aamir, Additional Advocate General, in the open court after their proper re-sealing by the Bench Secretary of the High Court.

Earlier the court had said that it was conscious of the fact that it had limited scope in interfering with an ongoing selection process which had not yet culminated, but, in view of the contentions raised by the petitioners qua violation of mandate of recruitment rules as well as terms and conditions of the Advertisement Notice on part of the respondents, it had become necessary to call for the records of the selection for perusal and examination of the court.

The grievance projected by the petitioners was that the selection process for the aforesaid post was being carried out by the respondents in violation of the recruitment rules governing the subject as well as against the mandate of Clauses (b) and (c) prescribed in the Advertisement Notice.

MY Bhat, the counsel representing the petitioners, while elaborating the claim made in the writ petition, submitted before court that the selection committee had not assessed the credentials of all the competing candidates on the basis of criteria and that, without such assessment, they called all the nine competing candidates for interview instead of restricting the number of candidates to the ratio of 1:5.

It was further submitted that the selection Committee was supposed to prepare a panel of three candidates on the basis of merit to be assessed by it and, thereafter, place the same before the Chairman, Governing Body, SKIMS, in the order of merit for making selection.

NUSRAT SIDIQ