SHILLONG, March 29 (NNN): The Hynniewtrep Youth Council (HYC) on Wednesday demanded the Meghalaya government to rectify an Office Memorandum (OM) which stated that the reservation roster should be prepared retrospectively as it is ‘illegal’.
A memorandum in this regard was submitted to the minister in charge of Law, Ampareen Lyngdoh for necessary intervention.
“It is also a settled law that any notification in order to have retrospective effect has to be authorized by a statute and in our opinion, the Office Memorandum dated May 10, 2022, has no statute which authorized to prepare the Reservation Roster to be effective retrospectively. Hence, it is illegal and the government must rectify it at the earliest,” HYC president Robertjune Kharjahrin said in the memorandum.
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He said they have seen various advertisements in government offices, certain reserved categories have got more seats than others because of this faulty and illegal Office Memorandum.
“This may lead to deprivation of jobs to the deserving candidates and also leads to unnecessary litigation. Hence, the Office Memorandum needs to be rectified immediately,” Kharjahrin said while adding, “Based on the above facts and circumstances, we would like to urge you to take necessary steps for rectification of the Office Memorandum dated May 10, 2022, on the matter relating to the maintenance of reservation roster.”
Kharjahrin said the HYC is of the opinion that the guidelines for the preparation of the Reservation Roster as per the Office Memorandum dated May 10, 2022, is contradictory to the Resolution dated January 12, 1972.
“The guidelines as per the OM dated May 10, 2022, provide that the Roster shall be prepared since the time the Reservation Policy came into effect i.e. from the year 1972. However, the Resolution stated above, clearly specifies in paragraph 2 that after the expiry of the second year, these reservations shall be treated as lapsed in case of non-filling of reserved category posts in any recruitment year,” he added.
The state government in pursuant to the judgment of the Meghalaya High Court dated April 5, 2022, and judgment dated April 20, 2022 – had notified the guidelines for the same vide office memorandum dated May 10, 2022.
At point D (1) of the office memorandum, it is stated that “In order to prepare the reservation roster, names of all the candidates holding the post as on the date of notification of this OM starting with the earliest appointee, since the time the Reservation Policy came into effect, subject to information being available, shall be filled up in the Reservation Roster against the point in the roster”.
As per the resolution dated January 12, 1972, which provides for the Reservation Policy in the state, it is clearly stated in paragraph 2 that “If a sufficient number of suitable candidates for filling up the reserved vacancies is not available from the respective classes in any particular year, then such vacancies will be available to others. But the deficiency in the number of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes will be carried forward to the next recruitment year and made good in the recruitment of that year, provided that reservation on account of deficiency shall not be carried forward for more than one year. After the expiry of the second year, these reservations shall be treated as lapsed. It has also been decided that at no time shall the number of normally reserved vacancies and the carry forward vacancies together exceed 90 per cent of the total number of vacancies in that year”.
The Meghalaya High Court vide order dated May 11, 2022 – has clearly stated that “Since the roster system is now in place, and without going into the merits thereof, the suo motu proceedings are dropped”.
Further, the Meghalaya High Court has clearly stated that “the validity of the roster system has not been gone into”. Hence, it may not be misconstrued that the High Court has accepted the validity of the roster system as per the Office Memorandum dated May 10, 2022, the HYC leader stated.
