High Court orders postponement of registration till further orders
FAIZAN BUKHARI
SRINAGAR, June 17: The Jammu and Kashmir High Court has asked the JK Bank to postpone the date of availability of its online link for registration of candidature by the aspiring candidates who want to work as Probationary Officers or Banking Associates in the Bank.
The order, a copy of which is in possession of Kashmir Despatch, was issued by Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey on Wednesday, after hearing a petition filed by 288 candidates who had applied for these posts in the JK Bank on a previous notification but their selection was later on quashed by the JK Bank.
Justice Magrey observed that since the maintainability of the petition is yet to be decided by the court, it would not be proper at this stage to grant stay on the fresh recruitment process initiated by the JK Bank.
On June 1, 2020, the JK Bank again advertised 350 posts of Probationary Officers and 1500 posts of Banking Associates to be filled up by the Bank vide a fresh recruitment notice number JKB/HR-Rectt-2020-27.
The 288 petitioners represented by the senior lawyer and former advocate general Jehangir Iqbal Ganaie, not only challenged the quashment of the selection list by the Bank but also sought stay on the fresh recruitment process initiated by the JK Bank.
“The court is of the opinion that since the matter is under consideration of the court on an important question of general public importance with a view to securing the interests of petitioners as well as to ensure that the prospective candidates are not put to any inconvenience later on, it would be appropriate for the Bank to issue a notice postponing the date of availability of the link for registration of candidature by the prospective candidates till further orders from the court,” reads the high court order.
Advocate Ganaie, told Kashmir Despatch that the petitioners along with lakhs of other candidates from across Jammu and Kashmir had applied for different posts advertised by the JK Bank on October 06, 2018 vide notification number HR-Rectt-2018-1564. However, after undergoing the examination and making it to the final section list, the Bank did not announce the result and instead notified the cancellation of the entire selection process on April 15, 2020.
Meanwhile, the counsel for JK Bank challenged the maintainability of the petition on the grounds that the petition was against the State and the JK Bank is not a State, nor an authority, or instrumentality of the State within the meaning of Article 12 of the constitution. He also referred to a ruling given by the Full Bench of J&K High Court to substantiate his argument.
However, the counsel for petitioners argued that the J&K government owns 68.18 % share capital of the JK Bank and in view of the changed circumstances, the financial and the administrative control of the Bank is now with the J&K government.
Advocate Ganaie, also referred to the a reply sought by the petitioners under RTI Act in which the public information officer of the Bank had stated that “The order regarding the scrapping of probationary officers and banking associates examination has been issued by the government, not by the Bank thus ownership of this order lies with the government.”
The counsel for the Bank later sought time to file a detailed reply to the points raised by the petitioners which was granted by the Court. Justice Magrey extended 10 days to the JK Bank to file its reply in the petition and listed the case for arguments on its maintainability for June 26, 2020.
Justice Magrey also asked the advocate general to assist the court in the matter in view of it being heard on an important question of law related to general public importance. The court also issued notice to the government to file its objections in the matter by or before the next date of hearing.
