The Bombay High Court's Goa bench Friday issued notice to the state government, asking it to explain the process of K.D. Row being chosen as chairman of the state public service commission (PSC). .
The notice was sent on a plea challenging his appointment, filed by lawyer-activist Aires Rodrigues a few weeks ago. He claimed that Row is Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar's relative and rules had been flouted while recruiting him.
Row was appointed the GPSC chairman in March this year.
Rodrigues, in his submission said that the Goa PSC chairman's appointment was "unconstitutional and illegal" and made arbitrarily "without any selection committee, with no criteria or evaluation and without any transparency".
The lawyer added that the appointment was solely made on the recommendation of Parrikar in a "very arbitrary and malafide manner, to favour his own relative", and asked the court to set aside Row's appointment.
The court has asked the state government to respond to the notice by July 5.