HC strikes down appointment of Kumar as Board Chairman

The Allahabad High Court today struck down the appointment of Sanil Kumar as the Chairman of the Secondary Education Services Selection Board.
The order passed by a division bench comprising justices Arun Tandon and Ashwani Kumar Mishra comes as a setback to the Samajwadi Party government in UP which had appointed Kumar to the post after his predecessor Aneeta Yadav was "restrained from functioning" by a court order dated July 6.
The court declared as illegal Kumar's appointment, allowing the petition of one Jitendra Kumar Goel, who had alleged that "absolutely no procedure known to law was followed in the matter of selection".

The court's verdict came less than a month after hearing began on Goel's petition on September 16.
Before taking over as the Chairman of the Board, Kumar was the Principal of an Inter College in Firozabad district of the state.
Incidentally, a petition challenging Kumar's appointment as the Principal of the college is also pending before the court.
Besides, hearing is continuing on the petition which had challenged the appointment of Aneeta Yadav besides two other members of the Board to their respective posts, all of whom had been "restrained from functioning" by the July 6 order.
The petitioner Abhilasha Mishra has alleged that Yadav, besides members Asha Lata Singh and Lalit Kumar Srivastava, were appointed to their respective posts though none of them had the requisite qualifications.