The Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court has held that the Government cannot sidestep eligible officers of the Health & Family Welfare (Gazetted) Service to assign temporary charge of the post of Director, Family Welfare, MCH & Immunization to an officer from an entirely different service, particularly when the governing rules prescribe no such mode of appointment.
A Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar dismissed a petition challenging the Central Administrative Tribunal’s decision, which had upheld the Government’s appointment of an outsider officer to the post.
The Court observed that while exigencies may sometimes require assigning charge to an ineligible person, such an arrangement should, in the fitness of things, be made from within the same service. The Bench attributed the Government’s difficulty in finding an eligible candidate to its own failure in convening Departmental Promotion Committee/Public Service Commission meetings regularly.
Though the Court noted that ordinarily one ineligible officer cannot challenge the appointment of another ineligible officer, it clarified that where an officer within the service is unfairly ignored in favour of an outsider without reasonable justification, judicial scrutiny is permissible.
Referring to Rule 3(1) and Rule 5(2) of the J&K Health & Family Welfare (Gazetted) Service Recruitment Rules, 2013, the Court reiterated that appointments to the post of Director can only be made through direct recruitment, promotion, or a combination of both in the prescribed ratio. Appointment by transfer is neither contemplated nor are relaxations in qualifications or recruitment methods permitted under the rules.
The Bench further noted that senior officers, including the respondent serving as ADMO Labour/Deputy Director (Schemes) since 2023 with decades of experience, were overlooked in favour of an officer from the Department of Medical Education. Terming the move as suggestive of favouritism, the Court upheld the Tribunal’s reasoning and dismissed the petition at the admission stage.
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