KATHMANDU, AUGUST 23
The constitutional bench of the Supreme Court has quashed most of the writ petitions filed against the recruitment vacancies announced by the Public Service Commission, paving the way for the PSC to move ahead the stalled process of recruiting new employees.
The five-member constitutional bench led by Acting Chief Justice Deepak Kumar Karki quashed most of the 99 writ petitions filed by government employees against the government and the PSC.
According to Spokesperson for the PSC Toya Narayan Subedi, since petitioner employees were unhappy with the government's decision to adjust them in the lower tiers of the government -- provincial and local governments - they challenged the PSC for opening vacancies, arguing that the federal government concealed information related to vacancies and the PSC opened those vacancies after federal employees were adjusted to local tiers of the government.
The ones who sued the government include employees who were keen to join a particular local level but were adjusted in a different local level and those who were allegedly adjusted at junior posts due to lack of equivalent posts in provincial and local governments.
The petitioner had also demanded that they be allowed to stay with the federal government. PSC Spokesperson Subedi said his office had not yet received the SC verdict, but going by reports in media, his office would be able to move ahead the recruitment process that had remained stalled for the past three years.
He said his office would now be able to move the process of filling almost 1,000 vacancies to posts from junior clerk to under-secretary levels. Subedi said the PSC's hands were still tied on some vacancies for which the SC had stayed the process of recruiting employees after Tharu candidates sued his office for not allocating seats under Tharu cluster.
Advocate Barsha Jha, who pleaded on behalf of a few petitioners before the constitutional bench, told THT that the apex court quashed writ petitions filed against the PSC because the court did not agree with the petitioners' argument that the federal government had concealed vacancies. The court agreed with the government's argument that those were genuine cases where vacancies were opened after retirement or death of some employees.
Jha said the court ordered the government to address concerns of reserve pool employees within a month.
The SC issued writ of mandamus in genuine cases where spouses were not allowed to work together and where the adjusted employees were not given equivalent posts.
Jha said the court quashed writ petitions of employees who were not adjusted in local governments of their choice, but were adjusted to neighbouring local levels or districts.
The bench is yet to release the full text of the verdict.
The five-member constitutional bench led by Acting Justice Karki comprises justices Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha, Anil Kumar Sinha, Bam Kumar Shrestha, and Tanka Bahadur Moktan.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 24, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.
