(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Srinagar- The failure of government to convene DPC on regular basis and make promotions in time has created a situation where not even a single candidate in the service is eligible to hold the post of Director Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, J&K, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has said.

The Court made the observations while upholding the Central Administrative Tribunal's order, underlining Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather could not have been assigned the additional charge of the post of Director, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, J&K.

The Tribunal had quashed the Government Order dated 23 December 2024 and had directed the Government to assign the charge of the post of Director, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization J&K to the senior most and eligible member of the J&K Health & Family Welfare (Gazetted) Service.

“The petitioner(Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather), who belongs to a different service and does not fall in the feeding cadre to the post of Director in question, is absolutely not eligible to hold the post even in officiating capacity,” a bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar said while dismissing Rather's plea against the CAT.

“We understand the difficulty respondent No.2 (Health and Medical Education Department) may be facing in posting an eligible person under the Rules as Director, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization but that does not give absolute discretion to respondent No.2 to pick up any person from any service and impose it on the Health and Family Welfare (Gazetted) Service.”

Read Also Public Interest No Cover For Speculative Fears: J&K HC HC Warns Staff Over Uniform Violation

If for some reasons beyond the control of Health and Medical Education Department, the court said, the working of the office of Director, Family Welfare, MCH and Immunization is required to be carried out by giving temporary charge to an ineligible person,“it would be in the fitness of the things to pick up such person from within the service.”

“We can visualize that this difficulty has arisen because of failure of respondent No.2 to convene the meetings of DPC/PSC for making regular promotions in different gazette cadres of the service periodically,” the Bench said, adding,“This failure of respondent No.2 to convene DPC on regular basis and make promotions in time has created a situation where not even a single candidate in the service is eligible to hold the post of Director.”

In such a situation, the court said, the Government may be justified in giving temporary charge of the post even to an ineligible person.

“We, however, fail to understand that when the Government has picked up an ineligible person to manage the post of Director, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization, why it could not do so by picking up such person from within the service,” the court said, adding,“May be on officiating posts, there are candidates including respondent No.1 (Dr. Poonam Sethi), who is holding the post of ADMO Labour/Deputy Director (Schemes) since 2023. These officers like respondent No.1, who have now reached to the level of Deputy Director, have long experience of decades at their back to run the administration in different capacities in the department of Health and Family Welfare.”

The petitioner (Dr Rather), the court said, is already holding the position in the Department of Medical Education and, therefore,“importing” him to the department of Health and Family Welfare smacks of an act of favouritism, the court said.

“We are well aware that ordinarily a person who himself is not eligible to hold the post cannot throw challenge to the appointment of another candidate,” the court said, adding,“However, in a case where one ineligible person is ignored at the cost of another ineligible person without reasonable basis or rationale, ineligible person, who has been ignored, can raise his voice and approach the Court to find out the reasons for his/her exclusion and rue the inclusion of another ineligible candidate that, too, who does not even belong to the service.”

MENAFN14082025000215011059ID1109932028