| The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court has stayed the recruitment of goods guards and assistant station masters — being undertaken through the Railway Recruitment Board, Bhopal and Mumbai — and granted interim relief on a writ petition filed by five young graduates from Nagpur.
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| The petitioners have named the Union railway minister, Nitish Kumar, chairman of the Railway Recruitment Board, Bhopal and Mumbai, B Lalchandani, Union railway secretary, the assistant secretary, Railway Recruitment Board, Bhopal and his counterpart at Mumbai as respondents in the case.
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| They have alleged favouritism in the recruitment process and charged Nitish Kumar of giving unfair preference to candidates from his home state of Bihar. The bench, comprising justice Vijay Daga and justice Bhushan Gavai, has ordered notice before admission to the respondents asking them to show cause in response to the petition filed by Rahul Badge, Seema Bagde, Bhushan Thool, Raju Ramteke and Kailash Somkuwar.
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| According to the petitioners, they have come to know after making due inquiry that the Union minister has exerted pressure on the chairman of these two recruitment boards and saw to it that most of the candidates are selected from his state - Bihar and thus he has made mockery of the constitutional guarantee of equality before law.
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| The petitioners have informed the court that they made representation to various authorities but did not get any response. The petitioners had applied in response to the advertisement of the boards on June 29, 2002 for these two types of posts - goods guard and assistant station master. For the post goods guard, there were written examination in two stages - preliminary and final, while for the post of assistant station master, there was only one written examination and one psychological test, which is considered as the only qualifying test.
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| In preliminary examination for the post goods guard, more than 500 candidates from Nagpur were selected. However, when the results were published on July 21, 2003, hardly 10 candidates from Nagpur were amongst the successful candidates and more than 90 per cent candidates, who succeeded, happened to be from Bihar.
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| Similarly, for the post of assistant station master, in psychological test, more than 200 candidates were selected from Nagpur, but 80 per cent candidates were declared failed and here also, majority of candidates finding place in the final list come from Bihar.
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| The petitioners have prayed to the court to order CBI probe into the entire selection process for these posts conducted by the two Railway Recruitment Boards or alternatively their prayer is for the court appointing inquiry body consisting of retired High Court judge or such persons of integrity for conducting inquiry.
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| The petitioners have alleged that as a result of the tactics adopted by the respondents, the very purpose of holding examination and getting proper persons for these posts is getting defeated. On September 3 last, when the said Minister was in Nagpur, the petitioners personally met him and tried to get their grievances redressed by submitting a representation to him.
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| During the meeting, the petitioners found the minister to be adamant and in no mood to go into their allegations including one of glaring favouritism while preparing final lists for these two posts. The petitioners have stated that these malpractices have become a routine feature of selection processes of Railways for recruitment. The boards have abused their authority by showing favouritism. Generally cut-off marks are declared by boards at the time of final results, but this time even cut-off marks were not declared.
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| Advocates Prakash Meghe, Waghmare and Mathur appeared for the petitioners. Adv R S Sundaram accepted notice for the Union of India. |
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