The high court (HC) has directed governments of Punjab and Haryana to put in place a comprehensive and rational criterion for selection to public employment as well as for the allocation of departments in cases involving a consolidated process, so as to ensure transparency and preserve the integrity of the recruitment process.

The court found that a criteria was finalised for allotment of departments but was kept concealed from all candidates (HT File)

The HC bench of justice HS Brar, while dealing with some petitions from Haryana also directed the chief secretaries of both the states to complete the exercise within three months and issue necessary instructions and also file a compliance report in HC.

Referring to the case in hand, the court said that scenario makes out a clear case of misconduct and directed the Haryana chief secretary to examine whether the conduct of the members and office-bearers of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission (HSSC) can be inquired into and appropriate action can be taken against those responsible.

The petitions had alleged that in the recruitment of Junior Engineer (civil) in 2019 by HSSC, transparency was not adopted in process of allotment of the departments.

The court found that a criteria was finalised for allotment of departments by the commission but was kept concealed from all candidates. It further found that commission claimed that an undisclosed algorithm was used for allotment but not uniformly applied to all selected candidates.

“The data presented by the respondent-Commission fully establishes the case of the petitioner(s) that serious prejudice has been caused to the more meritorious candidates due to the clandestine and opaque approach adopted by the respondent-Commission,” the court remarked adding that process adopted by the commission is “deeply troubling and must be addressed”.

“Obscurity with regards to the criteria or methodology adopted for allocation of departments creates a serious risk for arbitrariness and manipulation, especially when no statutory rules are available in this regard. The lack of a clear normative framework expands administrative discretion beyond it legitimate bounds that enable authorities to act subjectively, without transparent standards,” it said, adding that the allocation of departments cannot be made in a covert, unfettered and arbitrary manner. “Such allocation must necessarily be made while adhering to the provisions of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India and/or statutory rules,” it added.

The court also deprecated the role of senior commission functionaries in trying to withhold relevant information from the court and cited some instances of proceedings as per which multiple affidavits were sought from the commission as proper information was not submitted before the court about the process undertaken in the case at hand.