HC acts tough, asks lawyers to come prepared on next date

THE HC BENCH HAS BEEN REPEATEDLY ASKING THE LAWYERS NOT TO SEEK ADJOURNMENTS

CHANDIGARH: A division bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday asked the lawyers appearing in the 2000 recruitment scam of 2,985 junior basic teachers (JBT) in Haryana to come prepared on the next date of hearing or it would be forced to vacate the stay imposed on quashing of these teachers’ appointment.

As the hearing resumed on Friday morning, the high court bench of justice Mahesh Grover and justice Shekher Dhawan was requested by lawyers for an adjournment.

A perturbed HC bench ordered vacation of stay on single judge bench and agreed to modify the order only after assurance from lawyers that on the next date of hearing they would not seek adjournment.

The bench has been repeatedly asking the lawyers not to seek adjournments, but every now and then requests are made especially from petitioners side, thus delaying adjudication of the matter which is pending since 2000.

The hearing has been adjourned for July 20 now.

The selection process for recruitment of these teachers had started in 1999 during the tenure of then chief minister Om Prakash Chautala. In 2014, a high court single judge bench quashed selection of 2,985 teachers out of 3,206. When the matter reached before division bench, the single judge order was stayed the same year.

It was on January 22, 2013, a special CBI court in Delhi sentenced Om Prakash Chautala and his son Ajay Chautala to 10 years’ imprisonment for irregularities in the selection process.

The court had also convicted 53 others, including two IAS officers and officials of the education department in the scam.