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Jaipur, September 20 (HS). Rajasthan High Court has sought answers from the Principal Panchayati Raj Secretary, Panchayati Raj Director and Chief Executive Officer of Dholpur in a case related to seniority of Village Level Officers appointed in different districts in the same recruitment based on their appointment date and permanent status instead of merit. The division bench of CJ MM Shrivastava and Justice Ashutosh Kumar gave this order while hearing the preliminary petition of Jitendra Singh.
In the petition, advocate Harendra Neel said that in the year 1999, district-wise Village Level Officer recruitment was done. The written examination of which was conducted at the same time through a common question paper. At the same time, the concerned district administration appointed the selected candidates to this post at different times at its own level. Under which the petitioner was appointed in Dholpur district. The petition said that under Rule 285 of Panchayati Raj Rules, 1996, it was decided to prepare the seniority list of Village Level Officer post from the date of appointment and permanentization of the concerned employees. Challenging this provision in the petition, it was said that in the petitioner's case, all the candidates were recruited at the same time and through a common question paper. However, due to administrative reasons, many districts gave delayed appointment to the successful candidates.
Challenging the constitutionality of Rule 285, the petition said that under this rule, the Village Officer of the district in which the appointment is made first becomes senior to the officer of the district which is appointed late. Whereas seniority should be determined on the basis of mutual merit of the officers. In this case, employees with less merit than the petitioner have been promoted on the basis of their appointment date. Due to which the fundamental rights of the petitioner have been violated. Hearing on this, the division bench has sought a reply from the concerned officials.
