LHC Multan Bench nullifies all recruitment to lower courts

MULTAN: The Lahore High Court Multan Bench has declared all recruitments made in lower courts in Multan null and void after a petition was filed against the recruitments, a court order sheet said.

The LHC Multan Bench Judge Mr Justice Shahid Jamil Khan released the judgment on Saturday declaring the 100 recruitments against the post of clerks, drivers and others as illegal. The court also ordered an in-depth probe into the recruitment process. More than three posts were recruited in other Punjab districts.

Earlier, the petitioner Ch Muhammad Mehmood filed the petition, challenging appointments made by Multan District and Sessions Judge, alleging illegalities in procedure and lack of transparency.

The petition stated that advertisements for the posts including junior clerk (BS-11), process server (BS-7), driver (BS-5), Naib Qasid (BS-3) and watchman (BS-3) were published on January 21 last. Except for the post of watchman, the procedure for appointment on all the other posts was through written tests and interviews but scrutiny of applications, result of written test and calls for interviews were not made in transparent manner.

The order sheet says: “For the fixation of responsibility and consequent action against the responsible, who committed illegalities and irregularities, the LHC Multan Bench Registrar is directed to place the matter before the Administrative Committee for consideration to appoint an Inquiry Committee.”

The Registrar of the Court was directed, as per order sheet, to place record of appointments made in all the districts of the Punjab by respective District and Sessions Judges and by Senior Civil Judges before the Administrative Committee for approval, in terms of Clause (1) and (6) of the LHC notification dated July 27, 2011.

Further, the Registrar shall also place the rules, regulations and laws, relevant to recruitment of ministerial staff in subordinate courts before the Administrative Committee for consideration to bring them in harmony with Article 192 (1), 202, 203 and 208 of the constitution, says the order sheet.