Guj HC scraps appointment of 94 peons made by former ACJ

The Gujarat High Court has cancelled the appointment of its 94 class IV employess who were recruited by its former acting Chief Justice, V M Sahai, allegedly by flouting norms, even as around 14 of them have already resigned.
94 candidates had been appointed to the posts of peon allegedly without issuing any public advertisement and according to highly-placed sources in the high court, around 14 persons had already resigned after they were issued show-cause notices.
Talking to PTI, Registrar General of the Gujarat High Court B N Karia said "resignation of some persons were accepted while the services of the remaining persons have been terminated recently."

When asked, Karia said he did not have the exact numbers but added "some of them voluntarily resigned while rest of them, who did not resign, were terminated."
The decision to terminate the services was taken by a committee of the high court judges, Karia said.
Earlier this month, Karia had issued show-cause notices to all the 94 persons who were recruited in the state high court by allegedly violating the norms set for the appointment.

A city based RTI activist Ajay Prajapati had last month filed an affidavit in the high court that due process was not followed and several rules were flouted by the high court in recruiting its class IV employees, such as peons, recently.

Prajapati claimed that he had earlier raised this issue by writing a letter on July 3 to the HC Registrar, the President of India, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and others.
As per the letter, which is now part of his affidavit, it is stated that Article 229 of the Constitution confers powers on the high court for appointment of officers and servants of the high court.
"That does not mean that the high court can appoint any staff without following any process of law. This amounts to back door entry. In these posts, the staff appointed are the kith and keen of HC judges, staff attached to them and their sons and relatives only," the letter alleged.

Citing some previous judgments given by the Supreme Court, which has laid down principles about the recruitment, Prajapti claimed that appointments were done by the high court without giving any advertisement and eventually appointed people who are known to the judges of the high court.