HT DIGITAL
GUWAHATI, JULY 25: In a major development after receiving a Gauhati High Court order, the Assam government has terminated 29 probationary officers who were charged in the notorious APSC cash-for-jobs scam. The move has been made after the court ordered the state to grant re-mustering orders of discharge in a plain format on grounds of the officers being “not found fit for confirmation.”
The Personnel Department released new orders in accordance with the High Court judgment, which substituted previous dismissal orders that had been quashed as a result of procedural flaws. The initial orders had been challenged by the probationers in writ petitions, which were initially rejected by a single bench but reversed in part by a division bench of the High Court.
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The amended judgment ordered the government to revoke the previous discharge notices and issue fresh ones without specifying detailed reasons, thus eliminating procedural errors while affirming the essential conclusion that the officers were not fit for regular appointment.
In the meantime, official sources have assured that the state is also considering the cases of 20 more officers who were part of the same recruitment fraud. In contrast to the group who was sacked, those officers are not under probation and can be temporarily reinstated pending further action.
The authorities said such officers, after being reinstated, would have orders of suspension and will undergo departmental action, which eventually could result in their removal from service. The High Court has given the government the freedom to initiate both disciplinary and criminal action against all persons involved in the scam and to see the cases through to their logical end.
