JKPSC spent 44% more than sanctioned budget in fighting 508 cases in past 3 yrs

JAMMU: Adding one more to the score of controversies that have bordered the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) from time to time in sixty years of its being, the main recruiting agency of the state has found itself embroiled deeply in yet another controversy, spending over 44% more than its sanctioned budget as legal fee, with a whopping 508 cases pending against it in courts of law.
Already facing criticism from the aspiring candidates and the civil society for not maintaining transparency in its systems of carrying out the recruitment process and conducting exams for different services including prestigious J&K Civil Services examination, the state's premier recruiting agency's reputation is once again on stake as it is facing a total of 500 cases filed against it in the Jammu and Kashmir High court, while 8 cases are also pending against it in the Supreme Court of India.
In fact, the commission has also moved to J&K High Court as petitioner in 15 cases and filed appeals in Supreme Court in 2 cases during the last 3 years.
What is even more astonishing is the fact that the commission in contesting these cases before the honourable courts has spent Rs 34,83,200 during the last 3 years, Rs 10,58,200 more than its budget sanction for legal expenses which has been capped at Rs 24,25,000 for the same period of time- a significant 43.63% more.
In fact, during the last financial year 2016-17, the legal expenses of the commission doubled as compared to its annual budget under relevant head-Rs 7 lakh, the commission spent Rs 14,70,300 to meet its legal expenses, the official communication from the agency revealed.
While, it spent Rs 6,26,100 against sanctioned Rs 6 lakh in 2015-16, the other chunk of excess spending came during the current financial year, as the commission has spent-till date- Rs 7,89,500 against its sanctioned budget of Rs 5.25 lakhs.
This information, revealed in reply of an RTI filed by one Raman Sharma, has brought the commission in centre of yet another controversy, thus continuing the bad run it has faced over the years.
This controversy is not the first one to hover over the agency as in the past also, there have been a score of issues that have belittled the reputation of PSC, some as big as forgery of policy documents revealing the deep-rooted corruption and vested interests in its functioning. In fact, the voices demanding a separate PSC for Jammu region and an audit for all the appointments made by the agency in past one decade have become louder.
Earlier this year, the commission hit the news for bad reasons, as it decided to keep in abeyance the results of J&K combined competitive (preliminary) examination, 2016 over a number of incongruities in question papers and answer keys of examination, followed by deferring the Main Examination of Kashmir Administrative Services (KAS).
The entire saga had commenced after the agency released the answer key to the preliminary examination held in March this year, with over two dozen errors, some as grave as describing Oncology as the 'science of mountains'. These ambiguities, reported through a number of representations, were then referred to a team comprising of not less than two experts in each of the 23 subjects, based on whose finding, results were declared in last week of April.
However, the agency faced a serious question mark on its credibility after the result also contained a number of discrepancies, thus inviting outrage from the student fraternity. In its 4th extraordinary meeting, the agency, in an unprecedented move, kept in abeyance the result and decided to 'refer the question papers and answer keys thereto to the independent/third party subject experts for re-looking/revisiting them in order to find out discrepancy, if any', thus creating a state of uncertainty among 6925 qualified candidates.
Since then, it had- for a number of times- postponed the exam, jumping one dateline from another.