Telangana High Court on Thursday directed the State government to fill up the posts of Chairman and nine members of Telangana State Public Service Commission within four weeks.
Otherwise a judicial order would be passed to wind up the institution so that the Commission’s premises would be used for better purposes, said a bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy.
PIL petition
The bench was hearing a PIL petition seeking a direction to fill up the posts of the Commission’s chairman and nine members which are vacant for the past eight months. The petition was filed by one J. Shankar.
Senior counsel Satyam Reddy appearing for the petitioner said there is only one key officer in the Commission and he too would be retiring this August.
“Why is the State government not filling up the vacancies to such an important institution?”, the bench sought to know.
Strange, says court
The bench observed the State government not appointing Chairman and members for the institution is “strange”.
It wondered if the government wanted to wind up the Commission.
The CJ asked Special Government Pleader Harinder Parshad, appearing for government, what steps had the government taken to fill up the key posts of the Commission.
‘Made redundant’
Not recruiting Chairman and members of the Commission had made the institution redundant, the bench observed.
Observing that it was gross denial by the government, the bench said “this court is upset” over the matter. The bench directed the government to implement its direction to fill up the important posts of the Commission and file a compliance report.
The matter was posted after summer vacation for next hearing.