J&K Bank puts appointment of non-domiciled person for top post on hold

Appointment process was started before the introduction of the recent domicile law, says bank’s spokesperson

July 15, Mumbai: The closed J&K Bank ATM in Leh. Pix by Shyam G. Menon (For use with story on SBI ATM submitted by Shyam for Edit / Oped Page / Attn: Raghuvir Srinivasan)

The J&K Bank has put on hold the recent appointment of its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) after several regional parties and locals raised questions over the recruitment of a non-domicile candidate.

A spokesperson of the bank, in a statement, said J&K Bank Chief Managing Director R.K. Chibber has put the appointment on hold.

Terming the appointment as “yet-to-be-formally-confirmed appointment of the allegedly non-domicile candidate for the post of CFO”, the spokesperson said, “The appointment process had been started before the introduction of the recent domicile law and, as of now, the appointment has been put on hold after keeping in view the interests of the domicile candidates of the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir, and Ladakh, and would be reviewed accordingly.”

The appointment order was issued on April 23, 2020, by virtue of which a non-domicile of J&K was shown as appointed to a top post of the bank.

Made prerequisite

Earlier, the bank had made “domicile” a prerequisite for any appointment to the post of Managing Director. As per the orders issued by Union Ministry of Home Affairs, only a person residing in J&K for at least 15 years will now be eligible to be a “domicile” of the newly carved Union Territory.

The bank’s move to hold the appointment of a non-domicile candidate comes just days after several parties and civil society groups expressed their displeasure over it.

Jammu and Kashmir Apni Party (JKAP) president Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari was the first to take exception to the procedure and criteria adopted for the appointment. “There seems to be a sinister design to dilute J&K Bank’s functional autonomy. The order by virtue of which a non-domicile of J&K has been appointed to the post of CFO is an unprecedented move aimed at playing with the economic aspirations of the people of J&K,” Mr. Bukhari alleged.

Mr. Bukhari launched his own political party after the revocation of J&K’s special status on August 5, 2019. His party is the only regional party that held meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah over domicile laws.

‘Totally unacceptable’

Mr. Bukhari claimed that the government at the helm in J&K had clandestinely amended the recruitment rules after August 5, 2019 and created a window for the appointment of non-residents of J&K, especially to the top posts of J&K Bank. “This is totally unacceptable because any such recruitment is illegal and in violation of domicile law for J&K,” Mr. Bukhari said.