Conduct SSE 2019 recruitment process as per 2015 rules: HC to MP Govt

Jabalpur: The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday directed that recruitment process following the State Services Examination 2019 of the MPPSC should be conducted as per the unamended Examination Rules of 2015. The Jabalpur bench of the high court thus set aside an examination rule brought in by the state government through an amendment in 2020.

With the court's order, the result of the SSE 2019 main test, declared by the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPPSC) on December 31, 2021, and subsequent interviews for the post of deputy collector and other posts would need a revision, said Rameshwar Thakur, the petitioners' lawyer.

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A division bench of Justices Sujoy Paul and D D Bansal stated that "rule 4(3)(d)(III) introduced by Amendment in Examination Rules on 17.02.2020 is declared as ultra vires (unconstitutional) and set aside. "Resultantly, the recruitment process must be conducted and completed in consonance with unamended Examination Rules of 2015,” the high court said.

The MPPSC had published an advertisement on November 14, 2019, for the State Services Examination 2019 for 571 posts including deputy collector and deputy superintendent of police, advocate Thakur said. On January 12, 2020, a preliminary examination was conducted by the MPPSC.

But on February 17, 2020, the government issued a gazette notification about amendment to the examination rules related to the mode of preparation of selection list for all categories, the lawyer said. The result of preliminary examination was declared on December 21, 2020, on the basis of amended rules of 2020, he said.

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Some candidates challenged the result in the HC. On December 31, 2021, the MPPSC declared the result of the main examination and proceeded to conduct interviews of candidates, the lawyer said.

The candidates were concerned with the rule 4(3)(d)III of the MP State Service Examination Rules 2015 that says the adjustment of reserved category candidates in unreserved category will only be done at the time of final selection and not at the time of preliminary/ main examination, advocate Thakur said. The petitioners had argued that the selection process started with the issuance of advertisement on November 14, 2019.