Patna HC stays recruitment of 3600 agriculture coordinators

The Patna High Court today put on hold the appointment and posting of around 3600 agriculture coordinators in Bihar following complaints of mass-scale irregularities.
A bench of Justice Ravi Ranjan stayed the recruitment after aggrieved candidates challenged the final result published by the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC) on ground of mass scale irregularities in the preparation of the merit list.
The court has put on hold the appointments and posting till further orders.
The bench passed the direction on a bunch of petitions filed by Rajiv Nayan and some other aggrieved candidates challenging the final result published by the BSSC two months ago for appointing the agriculture coordinators.

Advocate Rajiv Rumar Singh, appearing for one of the petitioners, contended that mass-scale irregularities had been committed by the Commission in the preparation of merit list.
Citing the examples of 13 overage candidates getting selected in the final merit list, Singh submitted that even 60-year-old candidates had made it to the merit list.

The merit list did not specify as how much marks a candidate got in the examination, the advocate pointed out in his submission.
Even candidates outside Bihar got the reservation benefit, the petitioner argued.
The candidates, having experience of working as agriculture coordinators, were not given the weightage of marks, instead others serving as Block Technical Manager, Assistant Technical Manager, Subject Matter Specialist etc got weightage of marks in the selection.

BSSC, which is already mired in a controversy over the alleged paper leak scam for appointment of clerks in state government, had earlier in its advertisement, invited applications from candidates to fill up around 4400 posts of agriculture coordinators.
The Commission, however, published the merit list for appointment of 3599 agriculture coordinators on December 6, 2016.
The court has posted the matter for hearing on February 23 next.