RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh high court hearing the petition on an alleged selection of close relatives of senior government officials and politicians has on Wednesday asked the state government to examine the case as presented by the petitioner and file the reply within two weeks. The court has also asked the petitioner and impleaders to carry out an inquest into the matter before the next proceedings.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Naresh Kumar after hearing the petition filed by BJP MLA and former minister Nankiram Kanwar expressed “surprise” learning the issues and contents as framed by the petitioner who cited relatives and children of the senior officials besides the politicians, have secured high rank in the recently declared merit list of the Commission.
The petitioner produced before the court a list of 15 candidates who were cited as the relatives of the PSC chairman, senior government officials and political leaders.
Chhattisgarh government in its submission before the court gave an assurance that the matter will be thoroughly investigated and the response will be produced before the court. The government has further stated that till the next hearing in the case, the candidates cited as allegedly “favoured”, and not joined will not be finalised till the order is given by the court. The petitioner has also been told by the court that if the information given by him is not found to be correct, he will be subjected to appropriate action.
The next hearing in the given case will be on October 5.
The opposition BJP welcomed the court's observation. “The high court has halted the appointment of accused candidates who figured in the merit list of the PSC, which was too not spared by the corrupt regime of Congress government. The court has even expressed surprise over the names of the merit holders in the list. It’s a victory of lakhs of PSC aspirants”, asserted Raman Singh, BJP national vice-president and ex-CM.