HC notice to Pb govt on maintenance of interview records

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today sought a response from the Punjab government on a PIL seeking that records of government job interviews be maintained through audio and video recording for transparency.
A division bench of the court comprising justices Ajay Kumar Mittal and Amit Rawal issued notices for January 19, 2018 to the Punjab government and the Punjab Public Service Commission, Patiala.
In the public interest litigation (PIL), Sandeep Kumar of Moga's Rode village contended that the track record of the PPSC was very disappointing.
He referred to a recruitment scandal which took place under the chairmanship of Ravi Sidhu who was eventually convicted on corruption charges.

The petitioner said the Supreme Court had recently directed the high courts to ensure installation of CCTV cameras in all the lower courts, including tribunals, across the country in a phased manner to ensure transparency in the courts' functioning.
During the arguments, H C Arora, the counsel for the petitioner, referred to a 2009 judgmentof a division bench of the high court which directed the Haryana Public Service Commission to maintain records of interviews conducted by it through audio recording, video recording, or otherwise, for the sake of transparency.
The counsel argued that high court may issue similar directions to the Punjab Public Service Commission as well.

He also referred to a notification issued by the Goa Government directing the Goa Public Service Commission to maintain such records of all interviews.