HC clears decks for appointment of 1,035 TGTs in Haryana

Punjab and Haryana high court has cleared decks for appointment of 1,035 TGTs in the state. The recruitment process for the same started in 2015.

Written test was conducted in 2016 and interviews were held by the Haryana Staff Selection Commission between 2016 and 2020. However, in February 2021, the state government decided to withdraw the advertisement and decided to initiate fresh process for the same, which was challenged by some candidates.

As per senior advocate Chetan Mittal, who appeared for the petitioners, the dispute whether candidates having elective English as subject should be eligible for the post or the candidates possessing English as a compulsory subject, was pending in high court. The issue was decided by the single judge bench and appeals against the same were pending before the division bench, when the government decided to scrap the recruitment process. It was this decision a section of candidates had challenged in February 22, 2021 arguing that the decision was totally illegal as matter was pending before high court.

It was argued that selection process was fair, and now state can’t revert back and withdraw at a much advanced juncture when the interviews have already been conducted by the HSSC. The division bench of justice Gurmeet Singh Sandhwalia and justice Vikas Suri, allowing pleas observed that merely on account of pending litigation, the state cannot wriggle out of the invitation given to candidates once it is at an advanced stage. “The action as such on account of the fact that litigation had ensued and which was not even decided as such but defended by the state before the learned single judge cannot be a ground for withdrawal of the said advertisement,” the bench said, adding that it is in the interest of the state as such to ensure that the vacancies are filled up at the earliest. The court has now directed that the process initiated in July 2015 be completed and vacancies be filled up. “It is to be noticed that this court is faced with a barrage of service litigation right from the point of time an amendment is made in the service rules till advertisement is issued for filling up posts and the selection process is finalised. If state is to sit as a silent spectator and withdraw the advertisements as such without having opted to challenge in accordance with law, its action is highly arbitrary,” the bench added.