Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: Six Goa State Pollution Control Board employees who were let go in 2014 were ordered to be reinstated by the Bombay High Court of Goa, but those orders have been stayed by the Supreme Court of India.
The Pollution Board petitioned the Supreme Court for special leave in order to challenge the orders of the High Court that were delivered in September of this year. As a result, the Supreme Court granted the GSPCB interim relief in the form of a stay.
Six employees of GSPCB who held the positions of Scientific Assistant, Senior Laboratory Assistant, and Junior Laboratory Assistant were to be reinstated, per the High Court’s order.
The employees were among those hired by the GSPCB in 2012, and some other rejected applicants questioned their appointments, claiming irregularities in the hiring procedure.
Based on the allegations, an Inquiry Officer was appointed. After conducting an investigation, and more specifically, without providing the chosen candidates with an opportunity, the Officer discovered that the Departmental Selection Committee had conducted some irregularities in the process by awarding the Petitioners extra marks for which they were not entitled.
All of the petitioners objected to the report, which was submitted without providing them with a chance to be heard. But by dismissing their responses, the GSPCB ended the Petitioners’ employment. Each of the Petitioners challenged the termination orders by filing writ petitions with the High Court, citing grievances over the termination of their services, which occurred approximately six months after their appointments.
Restoring the candidates was ordered by the High Court, which found that the reasons for eliminating the positions on which they were appointed “appear to be colourful exercise of powers and with a mala fide intention to prevent the petitioners from joining such posts.”
