The Jammu and Kashmir Governor Administration has quashed appointments made to the Khadi Village and Industries Board (KVIB) last year after an inquiry revealed that the recruitment process was deficient and flawed.
The recruitments, done under the previous PDP-BJP coalition government in the state in 2018, had come under severe criticism over allegations of nepotism after kith and kin of some political functionaries figured in the list.
In a damage-control move, the then chief minister Mehbooba Mufti had ordered a high level inquiry into the selection process.
"All the selections made in the KVIB pursuant to advertisement notice No. KVIB/01 of 2016 dated 08.10.2016 are quashed/ cancelled," an order issued by Principal Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Navin Kumar Choudhary said.
The cancellation order is based on the recommendations of a three-member inquiry panel headed by the then principal secretary (Home) R K Goyal.
The order, however, said that the KVIB will provide opportunity of being heard to all candidates appointed to different category of posts pursuant to the advertisement notice and fulfil all formalities required under the law before cancelling the appointment of the selected candidates.
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The inquiry panel headed by Goyal had submitted its report to the Governor S P Malik-led Administration in November last year and said, "the committee is of the considered view that the entire process suffers from various deficiencies/ flaws".
"The committee, therefore, recommends that the entire process be quashed and initiated de-novo, after following the due process," the panel said in its report.
After examining the inquiry report, the government found that "the criteria adopted in these selections was not recommended by any expert committee but was proposed by the vice-chairman of the board and approved by its chairman (minister of Industries and Commerce)".
While Peerzada Mansoor of the PDP was the vice-chairman of the board, Chandra Prakash Ganga of the BJP was the chairman by virtue of being the then minister for Industries and Commerce.
The government also found that the criteria adopted in the selection process was not in accordance with the recommendations of the committee constituted in 2012.
In 2012, the government had constituted a panel to fix the criteria for the selection process in the KVIB which had recommended shortlisting of candidates for interview/viva-voce on the basis of their academic merit.
The order by the Industries and Commerce principal secretary also said that the agenda regarding the fixing of criteria for the jobs advertised in 2016 was finalised in October 2017, after the conclusion of the written test.
"The agenda regarding fixing of criteria for the 2016 selections placed before the Board of Directors on 03.10.2017, much after conclusion of the written examination held in the month of August 2017, was only as to how the 10 marks earmarked for experience can be awarded which should have been explained much earlier preferably in advertisement notice itself," the cancellation order read.
The inquiry also found that the selection committee declared the results in hurry on 14 February 2018 for five categories without waiting for conclusion of interviews for the posts of junior assistant/ record keeper which were to conclude on 19 February 2018 - making the entire selection process "doubtful".