COURTESY HT DEC 13

How tainted candidates got jobs, HC asks Punjab
The bench also sought explanation on how the dental demonstrators were granted benefit of retrospective promotions
Surender Sharma

letterschd@hindustantimes.com

Chandigarh : The Punjab and High Court has directed chief secretary, Punjab, to explain how the candidates found tainted in 2003 cash-for-job scam involving former Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC) head Ravi Sidhu were given appointments despite court orders against it.

The high court bench of justices Jaswant Singh and Girish Agnihotri has also asked the chief secretary to explain how the dental demonstrators having been found to be “tainted” in a report in 2016 were granted benefit of retrospective promotions. An explanation has also been sought how “tainted” persons have been actually granted benefit of retrospective promotions and appointments, and what action is being proposed or taken against the officers who indulged in the malpractice of giving appointment letters and retrospective promotions. In November 2019, too, details were sought on these lines. However, the state failed to respond. The high court bench warned that this was the last opportunity to comply with the directions, otherwise exemplary fine would be imposed on the next hearing on March 31.

The high court was hearing a clutch of petitions on the 2002 scam busted by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau and PPSC chief Sidhu was accused of accepting bribes for recruitments between 1995 and 2002.

In 2003, the government issued a notification to cancel recruitment in 67 categories of employees. The recruitment for PCS officers, Punjab Medical Civil Services, veterinary doctors, lecturers, headmasters, principals, block development and panchayat officers, deputy superintendents of police, agriculture development officers, and many other categories, was under scanner and alleged to be vitiated. Subsequently, the government was allowed to appoint those whose names were not found tainted in certain categories. A case-to-case basis analysis of selections was also initiated to identify tainted and non-tainted and appointments were allowed of clean candidates.

Sidhu, former chairman of the PPSC and the key conspirator, was awarded seven-year rigorous imprisonment in a disproportionate assets and corruption case by a trial court in 2018. In 2015, a Patiala court too had sentenced Sidhu to seven-year rigorous imprisonment for his involvement in the scam.

The high court observed that in 2019, the state was asked to supply lists of tainted and non-tainted candidates but even after almost a year, it has failed to do so. The court also said that some persons in the case of dental demonstrators, who were tainted, have been given promotions and details of the same have not also been supplied.

The court had said that if persons appointed are found to be tainted then all benefits granted illegally would have to be recovered and state government would also have to fix liability of the officers who released the benefits.

However, a fresh case of tainted person appointed as assistant professor of physical education in September 2020 was brought to the knowledge of the court by a counsel. The court has now questioned how such appointments were made