Kochi: The Kerala High Court giving a 24-hour notice for submitting applications for the recruitment of office attendant post in the court on daily-wage basis has raised many eyebrows. The authorities connected with the recruitment have been interviewing a batch of 600 persons for the post. The notification inviting application for the three-month temporary appointment appeared on the website of the court on September 23 (Saturday) evening with the last date being on September 25 Monday.
The hurried notification has been seen viewed with suspicion by many. The recruitment process for temporary appointment of the office assistant post practised in the HC is against the verdict of the SC in 2014 prohibiting the recruitment without transparency.
The verdict stated that the recruitment of class IV employees should be made on the "touchstone of equality of opportunity which is the cornerstone of the Constitution and under no circumstances illegal/irregular appointments should be saved since judiciary which raises a finger towards actions of every other wing of the society cannot afford to have such kind of accusations against itself."
The verdict also stated that any appointment made in contravention of the statutory rules should be scrapped irrespective of the post held by the person or the period of service. Although it has asked the high courts across the country to make the necessary provisions and open and transparent process for the recruitment, many high courts are yet to undertake the work. The delay in framing the guidelines provides the scope for such temporary appointments smacking of favouritism and allegations of lack of transparency.
