Ranchi, Oct 8 The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday reserved its order on several petitions challenging the termination of employment of candidates selected by the Jharkhand Staff Selection Commission (JSSC).
The bench of Justice Deepak Roshan concluded the arguments and reserved its order.
The petitioners had challenged the termination from service by the government through a notification issued on August 18, cancelling examinations conducted by the Commission.
The high court had on Wednesday extended the stay on termination of services of government employees, whose appointments were affected by the cancellation of certain examinations conducted by the state's Public Service Commission (JPSC) and the JSSC.
Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocates Rajiv Ranjan, Indrajit Sinha and Amritansh Vats had on Wednesday argued that the Jharkhand government had arbitrarily cancelled examinations conducted by the JPSC and JSSC.
The counsels submitted that the Special Investigation Team constituted to probe alleged irregularities had not established any nexus or involvement of the affected candidates in any wrongdoing related to the conduct of the examinations.
The state government had issued a notification on August 18 cancelling examinations conducted by the JPSC and JSSC since 2014.
The decision affected around 23 examinations conducted by the commissions, and resulted in successful candidates who had secured government employment facing the possibility of termination.
The high court was hearing petitions filed by several successful candidates, who are currently employed in government services.
The petitioners’ counsels further submitted that the SIT investigation has been underway for nearly two years, but no chargesheet had been filed so far.
In the absence of a chargesheet or specific evidence establishing individual culpability, it would be unjust to cancel the examinations and terminate the services of all successful candidates, they argued.
Defending the state government’s decision, Advocate General Rohitashya Roy and senior advocate Meenakshi Arora said the investigation into the alleged scam in the state’s public service examinations was still underway.
They said the probe had revealed “irregularities” and alleged foul play at various levels of the examination process, which had led the state government to cancel the examinations.
