Only Ex-Govt officials with minimum 10 years service can be appointed as Chairman & Members in Punjab Public Service Commission, says HC Advocate

Published on: 27 Jul 2023 at 10:26 AM

Published by: thefactnews

The Fact News Service

Chandigarh, July 27

Only former government officials with a minimum of 10 years of service can be appointed as Chairman and Members of the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). This was stated by Hemant Kumar Advocate in Punjab and Haryana High Court.

“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,” he said.

He claimed that as prescribed in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), 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.