ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court allowed the Sindh government appeal against the Sindh High Court (SHC)’s judgment declaring the Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) Act, 1989, ultra vires to the Constitution.
A three-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Gulzar Ahmed, on Tuesday, heard the Sindh government’s appeal regarding the appointments and irregularities in the SPSC.
The Court directed the SC office to fix the petitions of all the officers who were affected by the SHC verdict.
The SHC, in June this year had declared the SPSC Act, 1989 ultra vires to the Constitution, and cancelled the job test results of medical officers and Combined Competitive Examination (CCE) held in 2018.
The bench allowed the PSC chairman and the members to continue to work till the final decision on the appeal. It also permitted the suspended officers recruited through the CCE 2018 to work.
The Sindh advocate general informed that the Hyderabad circuit bench of the SHC had declared null and void the SPSC Act and also set aside the appointments made under this law. He informed that the SHC verdict affected the recruitment of 1,700 male and female medical officers.
Makhdoom Ali Khan, senior advocate, appeared on behalf of the persons who had been selected through the CCE-2018. He told the bench that the High Court has also stopped the officers recruited through the CCE 2018 from working. He said the SHC neither heard the Sindh AG nor the officers were the party before the High Court.
The SHC stated that bureaucracy used to function more efficiently under the Sindh Civil Servants Act, 1973, and Sindh Civil Servants Rules, 1974 and 1975, and half a dozen other similar laws and rules. “The province had been served by honest, qualified and motivated civil servants before 1989 when this institution [SPSC] in its present form was born - according to one view to serve as one-window facility to foster wholesale corruption.”
The high court further found a deliberate deviation from following the principle of merit in the SPSC Functions Rules, 1990. The 1989 Act states that the commission shall conduct tests and examinations, while the 1990 rules only use the word tests.
The court ordered that all tests, interviews, selections, appointments, tenders, etc or any act doable under the SPSC Act, 1989 or rules and regulations made there under were suspended.
The court said that in case the provincial government wished to re-enact the laws, it should draw some inspiration from such laws enacted in developed countries such as Australia or New Zealand to deliver the premise of “right man/woman for the right job” without fear or favour.
The case was adjourned until the first week of December.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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