The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to cancel selection of 98 candidates for the posts of Junior Panchayat Secretaries under sports quota.
Delivering the judgement, Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao instructed the government to notify the posts again for filling up under sports quota along with the remaining unfilled posts as per the notification issued on August 31, 2018.
As per the order, the government should invite applications from eligible candidates and apply the rule of minimum passing marks of 35% (who got 70 marks out of the 200 marks in the written test conducted for selection of the post).
The appointments should be made strictly on the basis of the merit of the candidates in the sports concerned as per the GO Ms. No. 74 dated August 9, 2012 and “not on the basis of the marks obtained by the candidates in the qualifying examination,” the judgement said. The judge ordered that the entire process of selection must be completed within three months of receiving the order copy.
A batch of writ petitions were filed alleging that the Panchayat Raj Department filled up 98 out of the 172 posts of Junior Panchayat Secretary under sports quota based on the marks secured in a qualifying examination. The petitioners contended that since posts under sports quota are given to encourage persons excelling in sports, the action of the government filling up posts under sports quota based on the marks in qualifying exams was arbitrary and illegal.
A contempt of court petition too was filed against the Panchayat Raj Commissioner as the recruitment was made in violation of the affidavit presented to the court. The judge said the contempt proceedings were being dropped as the Panchayat Raj Commissioner agreed to rectify the mistake by redoing the recruitment for the posts under sports quota.
