‘APPOINTMENTS TO PUBLIC BODIES MUST BE BASED ON TALENT’

Observing that appointments to all public bodies must solely be based on “talent,” the Bombay high court has denied relief to a group of lower cadre employees of the city’s civic body seeking that they be absorbed against the existing vacancies for clerks.

A bench of Justices SC Dharamadhikari and Bharati Dangre recently held that since the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) was a public body, it was required to maintain transparency and the highest standards of work.

Thus, it would gain more by employing candidates with “more calibre, and fresh blood and vigour,” through fresh selection procedures from time to time, the court said.

The bench was hearing a plea filed by 15 ‘grade 4’ employees of the BMC. As per the petitioners, in 2011, the BMC issued a circular advertising vacancies for the post of clerks. The eligible candidates were to take an examination and secure the minimum qualifying marks of 40 out of 100.

Since the petitioners met the eligibility criteria, they decided to take the exam as well.

However, while the BMC had around 329 vacancies, 475 applicants secured the minimum qualifying 40 marks. The BMC decided to hire only those who had secured 49 marks and above.

Thus, those who had secured between 40 and 48 marks and made it to the qualifying list, lost out on the job.

In 2014, a reply to an RTI query revealed that the BMC still had vacant positions for clerks.

Subsequently, 15 of those who had lost out on the job in 2011 approached the HC, seeking that they be appointed on the basis of having qualified in the exam.

The BMC opposed their demand, saying that since 2011 it had made many changes to the eligibility criteria.

The BMC’s counsel, advocate Anil Sakhre, said the validity of a merit list was only for a year and that the corporation had decided to conduct fresh examinations to fill up the new vacancies.

MUMBAI: