Bathinda: The Punjab and Haryana high court has stayed the recruitment process for 85 positions under the Punjab State Rural Livelihoods Mission following initial findings of irregularities in how candidate marks were awarded.Justice Sandeep Moudgil passed the order on Wednesday for 41 block programme manager and 44 cluster coordinator posts after reviewing a sealed report from a court-appointed scrutiny committee headed by an advocate, Vishal Sharma.The court order said, “Further proceedings in the selection process shall remain stayed till the next date of hearing as prima facie certain anomalies and ambiguities have been noticed in the manner of awarding marks under different heads to candidates who appeared in the said examination.”The selection process was designed to allocate 70 marks to a written exam, 10 to interviews, 10 to educational qualifications and 10 to work experience. However, court-examined records revealed evaluations were only maintained for the written test and interview, leaving 20 marks unaccounted for.Citing concerns over fairness, transparency and legality, the court seized all original recruitment records.Three clubbed petitions regarding the selection exercise will be heard on Sept 2.The ruling follows a similar order on Aug 10, when the high court stayed recruitment for state pharmacy officers till the next date of hearing on Sept 17.
