Jammu June-14-2023– Central Aministrative Tribunal restrained Health Department from withdrawing the post of Lab Assistants advertised vide advertisement No. 5/2015 and further from re-referring to the said respondent No. 2 JKPSC till the next date of hearing.
This significant order has been passed by CAT after hearing Sr. Adv Abhinav Sharma who prayed for interim relief that the operation of impugned Circular dated 03.02.2022 and communication dated 22.05.2023 may be stayed with direction to restrain the respondents from withdrawing the post of Lab Assistant, advertised vide advertisement No. 5/2015 dated 01.09.2015 and further re-referring the said post to JKPSC.
CAT after perusal of the material available on record it is evident that respondent No. 2 vide Advertisement Notice no. 5/2015 dated 01.09.2015 invited applications for posts in various departments including 46 posts of Lab Assistant, Divisional Cadre, Jammu in the department of respondent No. 3.
The controversy in respect of said Advertisement No. 5/2015 dated 01.09.2015 for the post of Lab Assistant was went for adjudication before the Hon’ble High Court of J&K vide SWP No. 2512/2012. The Hon’ble High Court vide order dated 04.05.2018 dismissed the said writ petition and thereafter the order of the Hon’ble High Court was further challenged by way of LPA No. 30/2018 titled as Naresh Kumari Vs. State of J&K and CDLSW No. 70/2018 titled as Rajeev Chopra Vs. State of J&K and others. The said LPAs have also been dismissed by the Hon’ble High Court vide judgment dated 22.02.2023. It is noticed that after a long legal battle in respect of Advertisement No. 5/2015 with regard to the dispute of appointment of the Lab Assistants which has been ultimately adjudicated upon by the High Court, surprisingly, the respondent No. 1 on the strength of Circular dated 03.02.2022 and communication dated 22.05.2023 has taken the decision for withdrawl of 46 posts of Lab Assistant.
CAT after carefully gone through the judgment of High Court dated 22.02.2023 passed in LPA No. 30/2018, wherein, the official respondents vehemantly argued that because of the urgency, Rules of 2009 were framed so as to make the appointment for the teaching posts and nurses/para-medical/para-dental/technical staff in the Government Medical Colleges and Government Dental Colleges as the filling up of the posts under the normal recruitment process as per the relevant recruitments rules was likely to consume time and thereby sought the dismissal of LPAs.
CAT further observed that from the perusal of order dated 22.02.2023 of the High Court, it is seen that the official resondents have not referred the Circular dated 03.02.2022 regarding withdrawal of post referred to JKPSC and JKSSB prior to 30.10.2019 including the post of Lab Assistant during the proceedings before the High Court. It is note worthy to mention here that after the dismissal of LPAs by the High Court vide order dated 22.02.2023, the respondent No. 1 has issued further communication dated 22.05.2023, whereby it was requested to respondent No. 3 to withdraw the 46 posts of Lab Assistant, Divisional Cadre, Jammu advertised vide advertisement No. 5/2015 dated 01.09.2015.
CAT observed that the stand of respondent No. 1 is prima facie appears to be unreasonable, illogical, therefore, the operation of Circular dated 03.02.2022 along with communication dated 22.05.2023 is stayed till the next date of hearing and restrained the respondents from withdrawing the post of Lab Assistant advertised vide advertisement No. 5/2015 and further from re-referring to the said respondent No. 2 JKPSC till the next date of hearing. JNF