No complaint in APSC exams since 2014: Gauhati HC

Guwahati: The Gauhati high court, while hearing a PIL on the 2014 cash-for-job scam in the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC), noted that no complaint has been reported in APSC exams since then. The court said this suggests the govt may already have acted on the inquiry committee’s recommendations.

A division bench of chief justice Ashutosh Kumar and Justice Arun Dev Choudhury was hearing a PIL Pritom Hazarika and Jon Jyoti Sarmah filed in 2023 with the objective of ensuring timely action by the state authorities, pursuant to the report submitted by Justice (Retd) BK Sharma, who had been appointed as a One-Man Commission of Inquiry to look into the allegations of irregularities, corruption and malpractice in the selection process, conducted by the APSC for the years 2013-2014.

S Borthakur, advocate for the petitioners, contended that commission, after having made detailed investigation in the matter, submitted its report on April 2, 2022, but “no concrete action has been taken by the state on the recommendations made by the commission; some of which are really essential for maintaining the purity and sanctity of the public examination.”

He pointed out that the inaction of the govt has undermined the very purpose of the inquiry. He submitted that the state govt cannot be permitted to remain passive on the recommendations made by a judicially directed inquiry commission.

After hearing both the parties, the court stated, “...what has caught our attention is that after 2014, every year, APSC has conducted public examinations but there has not been any reported complaint so as to question the purity of such processes.”

This necessarily implies that all the remedial measures may have been taken though not stated in clear terms that such remedial measures were pursuant to the recommendations made by the commission.”

That apart, the court added that it cannot lose sight of the fact that the report of an inquiry commission is recommendatory in nature as it is only a fact-finding body with its suggestions.

“It is trite that such recommendations are not binding on the govt and, therefore, the courts cannot compel the govt to implement the report. The govt would be perfectly within its rights to either implement the report; or reject it; or partially implement it,” the court stated.

The court added that the implementation of the inquiry commission report would fall in the administrative priorities. “What the court of law must ensure is that the report is properly laid before the legislature; considered by the govt and in some instances, assess whether the rejection of the report is mala fide or arbitrary,” the court stated.

“Since we have not been made aware of later selection processes conducted by the APSC to have been plagued by any large scale corruption, it is understood that most of the suggestions, which are of general nature, have already been implemented and under these circumstances, we find it difficult to accede to the request of the petitioners for issuing any directive for implementation of the report,” the court stated.