HC halts recruitment of Agriculture Development Officers

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has halted the ongoing selection process for Agriculture Development Officers (ADOs) after finding that questions asked in the screening examination were prima facie not related to the field for which recruitment was being undertaken.

Issuing interim directions on a petition filed by candidates challenging the screening result declared on November 14, Justice Sandeep Moudgil held that the process could not go forward in its present form.

The petitioners had sought the quashing of the screening result and a direction for either the re-conduct of the test with relevant syllabus or re-evaluation with proportionate compensatory marking for the nine deleted questions, keeping in view the impact of negative marking.

They also pressed for relaxation of shortlisting norms or additional inclusion of reserved category candidates so that at least four times the number of advertised posts were represented.

During the hearing, HPSC counsel Kanwal Goyal accepted the notice and was directed to file a reply before the next date.

After examining the documents placed on record, the court noted that the annexed question set included material not relatable to the objective of recruitment.

While staying further proceedings in the selection, the court observed:  “In view of the foregoing, the further process of selection shall remain stayed. This interim order is warranted considering the nature of the questions indicated in an annexure which, on the face of it, bear no relevance to the purpose of the examination for which the candidates had appeared, namely, the screening test for recruitment to the posts of Agriculture Development Officers.” December 23 has been fixed as the next date for hearing.