SC wants all govt recruitment under cameras to maintain purity

The Supreme Court has said that the selection of candidates by State Public Service Commissions and Staff Selection Boards to various government posts should be held under the arc and light of cameras to maintain transparency and purity in the recruitment process.

"We are of the view that for the purity of selection to the public posts, it is desirable that as far as possible the selection process conducted by the selection bodies, especially the State Public Service Commissions and the State Selection Boards, is videographed," a bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and R F Nariman said.

The top court said that it is desirable that CCTV cameras are installed to the extent viable at examination centres as well as interview centres.

"Footage thereof may be seen by an independent committee of three members and report of such committee may be placed on the website concerned," the court added.

The court passed its directions on Friday while dealing with a batch of petitions filed against the November 2, 2017 judgement of Meghalaya High Court, which had found serious irregularities in the selection process for the appointment of assistant teachers.

Complaints rampant

The bench said such incidents are being reported in several cases as the court dealt with a similar case, pertaining to recruitment of gazetted probationers by the Karnataka Public Service Commission in 'Avinash C and Ors v The State of Karnataka & Ors' on April 4.

In Karnataka's case, the court had noted there were allegations about demand for bribes and an FIR was also lodged against the KPSC chairman, members and other officials. The HC had then set aside the whole selection process after noting 566 candidates were awarded exactly the same marks by the members who were constantly in touch with them. The court, however, has asked the Karnataka HC to examine within three months if the written examintions were blemish-free as contended by some of the selected candidates.

In the Meghalaya case, the court asked the HC to consider within two weeks grievances of the candidates, if those were not heard earlier.

The court directed that the copy of its order for holding selection process under the camera be sent to the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) in order to be forwarded to the authorities concerned for compliance.