Henceforth, only ex-Govt Officials with minimum 10 yrs service can be appointed Chairman & Members in PPSC-Hemant Kumar
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ July 24,2023
Earlier this month on 6 July 2023, a Notification was published in Punjab Government Gazette Extraordinary issued by the Department of Personnel (PP-III Branch) under the seal & signature of Punjab’s then Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua.
Although since 1 July 2023, Anuarg Verma is new Chief Secretary of Punjab but since the aforementioned Notification is actually dated 6/19 June 2023 hence it bears the name of erstwhile State Chief Secy.
Meanwhile, Hemant Kumar, an Advocate at Punjab & Haryana High Court said that the aforesaid Notification lays down the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) pertaining to the selection of Chairman and Members in the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC).
The ibid MoP envisages a two stage (Selection) process viz. firstly Search Committee which would do Preliminary scrutiny of the applications received through open advertisement(s) (Public Notice) as issued calling all eligible candidates to apply for post of Chairman and Members in the PPSC. Next, there would be a High Powered Committee which would do the Final Selection.
It has been provided in the MoP that the Search Committee shall be constituted under the Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary of the Punjab Govt. Besides,one of the members shall be serving Principal Secy. i.e. not below the rank of Financial Commissioner and the third member can be serving or retired Bureaucrat not below the rank of Financial Commissioner, or member of the Armed Forces not below the rank of Brigadier or of equivalent rank. On other hand, the High Powered Committee shall consist of the Chief Minister, Speaker of Assembly and the Leader of Opposition.
It has also been laid down in the MoP that the Search Committee shall prepare a panel of suitable candidates equal to three times the number of vacancies. The High Powered Committee shall consider all the names forwarded by the Search Committee, examine and prepare its own recommendations. Thereafter, the recommendation shall be placed with all relevant material including relative merits of the candidates for the approval of the Governor of Punjab.
Hemant however asserted that as per Qualification and Experience ( for both Chairman and Members) as prescribed in the aforementioned MoP, the applicant should have an experience of at least ten years service either under the Government of India or under the Government of State. This means that henceforth, only ex /former Central or State Government officers with minimum 10 years service as such can be appointed as Chairman or Member(s) in PPSC.
The Advocate pointed out that as per Proviso to Article 316 of Constitution of India, as nearly as may be one-half of the members of every Public Service Commission shall be persons who at the dates of their respective appointments have held office for at least ten years either under the Government of India or under the Government of a State.
Hence, in view of the above although the Indian Constitution provides that only one-half of members in both Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) as well as in every State Public Service Commission (like PPSC) can be from ex-Govt officials category, but as per the latest framed MoP by Punjab Government, all the members i.e. cent percent members (including Chairman) in PPSC would be from such category. Thus neither the Chairman nor any Member in PPSC can be appointed from non-Govt official category.
Henceforth, only ex-Govt Officials with minimum 10 yrs service can be appointed Chairman & Members in PPSC-Hemant Kumar said that as on date, the post of (regular) Chairman of PPSC is vacant and currently Prof. (Dr.) Jamit Kaur Teji, Member of PPSC is officiating Chairman of PPSC since April, 2023. There are a total seven Members in PPSC. Last year in August, 2022, the Bhagwant Mann led AAP Govt reduced the strength of total members in PPSC from ten to five. However, this would be implemented only when the tenure of current two members in PPSC would be completed in the next two months. While a Member viz. Capt (Dr.) Hardial Singh Mann, IPS (Retd) tenure is till 31 Aug 2023 while the tenure of another Member and currently officiating Chairperson Prof. Teji is till 29 Sep 2023. The tenure of other members is as follows – Shivinder Singh Mann ( 6 Nov 2023), Dr. Manpreet Chhatwal ( 24 Jan 2024), Gurpartap Singh Mann ( 12 March 2024), Supreet Singh Ghuman ( 12 March 2024) and Harmohan Kaur Sandhu ( 19 Aug 2025).
The process of filling up the post of regular Chairman of PPSC is currently underway for which former State Chief Secretary VK Janjua is being considered a strong contender. Well, if Janjua is appointed as PPSC Chairman, he would have tenure till June, 2025 i.e. till he attains the age of 62 years which is the maximum age-limit for post of Chairman and Member of every State Public Service Commission as per Article 316(2) of Constitution of India, quips Hemant.
