In a very sudden state of affairs many UPPSC Aspirants who had applied for the post of lecturer (Mathematics) at the government degree college were surprised that randomly 35 candidates were selected for the interview process without any intimation of a cut off marks or any other qualifications for the said selection.
This issue began with the UPPSC publishing an advertisement on 17th March 2017 inviting applications from eligible candidates on the post of Lecturer in Government Degree College in various subjects. The advertisement prescribed minimum qualifications, age, and procedure of recruitment amongst other things. However no mention of the cut off marks or any sort of criteria was mentioned in the advertisement .
The UPPSC a few days later published another advertisement declaring an increase in the posts of lecturer for the subject of Mathematics to 42 without declaring any other changes with regard to qualification and the procedure of recruitment.
The UPPSC had prescribed a screen test for the same and the said test was postponed multiple times before 2019; when the admit cards were finally issued .The admit cards contained no information with regard to the criteria or the cut off the screening test.
Then out of a sudden the UPPSC issued a communication which informed the candidates that the list of candidates who have the screening test in the ratio of three times to the number of posts advertised shall be uploaded on the website and the interview shall take place on 28th and 29th of September 2020.
The aspirants were shocked when they saw on the website that only 35 candidates were selected for the interview process; whereas according to the rules mentioned three times to the jobs advertised candidates were to be chosen [In this case since the jobs advertised were 42 ;126 people should have been invited for the interview process]
The recruitment in this case was governed under provisions of The U.P. Higher Education (Group-A) Service Rules,1985 which clearly lay down that in case of direct recruitment a screen test shall not be conducted. Thus there has been a violation of rules by the UPPSC itself.
The aggrieved candidates expressed their grievance to the UPPSC but to no avail. They then approached the Allahabad HC on 24th September 2020 for filling a writ petition against this biased and arbitrary selection process. They were represented by Adv. Satyam Singh Rajput and Adv. Prashant Kumar Shukla.
It was submitted by the petitioners that the action of declaring 35 candidates for the interview process was arbitrary and violated its own rules and policies and there may be some malicious intent behind this act.
The HC further sent a notice to the concerned authorities and shall hear the matter on 16th October 2020