Governor N. N. Vohra has asked Chief Secretary to ensure that all Administrative Secretaries and the recruiting agencies respond promptly in every case in which there are “Stay Orders” from competent courts and ensure that the prolonged pendency of such cases does not result in delaying the recruitment processes.Governor observed “the concerned Departments, in coordination with the recruiting agencies and the Law Department/ Advocate General should ensure filing of time-bound replies in the concerned Courts to ensure against any avoidable delay in recruitments,” while chairing separate meetings, at Civil Secretariat here last evening, to review the status of vacancies and progress of recruitment in Health and Medical Education and School Education Departments.Chairman J&K Public Service Commission, Latief-u-Zaman Deva, Advisors to Governor, B B Vyas, K Vijay Kumar & Khurshid Ahmad Ganai; Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam; Principal Secretary Finance, Navin K Choudhary; Principal Secretary to Governor, Umang Narula; Principal Secretary Planning, Development & Monitoring, Rohit Kansal and Principal Secretary Health & Medical Education, Dr Pawan Kotwal, Commissioner Secretary, General Administration Department, Hilal Ahmad Parray; Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education, Sarita Chauhan, Secretary School Education, Rigzian Sampheal, Chairman, Services Selection Board, Zubair Ahmad and other senior officers of the concerned Departments were present at these meetings.
Governor asked Chief Secretary to designate officers who shall be responsible for ensuring constant review to ensure that replies are timely filed in the courts. He also directed prompt action to deal with the grievances of those who have gone to the courts and ensure that litigations are reduced to the very minimum.“Instead of getting entangled in litigations, efforts should be made to resolve the grievances/complaints from within the Departmental redressal systems,” he observed and added that the onus also lies on Law Officers who need to guide the Government as well as the concerned Departments about the merits of the claims raised by the employees who seek legal redress.Governor issued instructions that in all cases where appeals have to be filed by the concerned departments, the concerned Administrative Secretaries shall ensure that such action is taken well within the stipulated time-frame. Governor directed Heads of Department to regularly monitor the progress of court cases and take appropriate measures to address every pending court case.Governor also asked the Administrative Departments to promptly respond to the queries and clarifications sought by the Public Service Commission and the Services Selection Board regarding any vacancies referred to them so that the recruitment process is not held up for want of any requisite information from the Departments.Earlier, Chairman JKPSC and Chairman SSB briefed Governor in detail about the important court cases and their current status.According to officials, while around 800 cases are pending in various courts pertaining to SSB, there are another 500 cases pertaining to JKPSC.