Srinagar, Oct 13: More than six months after its suspension, the government on Tuesday ordered resumption of Face Recognition Bio-metric Attendance Systems from October 19.

“Having regard to SoPs in place for containing the spread of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bio-metric attendance was suspended in all Government offices across the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” reads an order issued by GAD.

“The Lieutenant Governor has observed that in order to ensure discipline and punctuality of Government employees in offices, it is important that some objective attendance mechanism is put in place for marking of attendance,” the order, a copy of which lies with GNS, adding, “Accordingly, it is hereby impressed upon all Administrative Secretaries to advise their officers/officials in the Civil Secretariat to mark their attendance through Face Recognition Bio-metric Attendance Systems w.e.f. 19.10.2020.”

The order said that the Heads of the Departments and Field Offices shall adhere to the instructions and ensure installation and operation of the Face Recognition Bio-metric Attendance Systems by October 19. (GNS)

New Delhi, Oct 13: The Supreme Court on Tuesday postponed the hearing of loan moratorium case to Wednesday, October 14, as the top court was not able to take up the matter due to paucity of time.

“We are adjourning the loan moratorium issue to tomorrow at 1030 am, as the court heard many other matters before it and this case couldn’t be taken up today due to paucity of time,” a bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan said.

The bench is hearing a slew of petitions seeking appropriate directions and orders in waiving off interest on interest on loan moratorium period during Covid-19 pandemic time.

The Apex Court had earlier expressed its complete dissatisfaction over the response by the Centre and Reserve Bank of India on the loan moratorium issue and sought another response.

The SC had also asked the parties, including the Union of India and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to file a detailed affidavit, highlighting all the points.

The parties will have to file a detailed categorical reply as to which recommendations by K V Kamath Committee were accepted, and if those were put out in public domain, the Apex Court had said.

K V Kamath committee had recommended debt restructuring due to COVID-19 related stress on various sectors as well as on the issue of loan moratorium.

Banks Association had told the court that the central government is taking a two pronged approach. “The compound interest waiver proposed for small borrowers is not happening,” the association said.

One petitioner, Vishal Tiwari said that the moratorium date should be notified by the Centre so that borrowers can get some relief.

As the country went into the lockdown mode to trim the spread of COVID-19, the RBI on March 27 allowed a moratorium for all banks for three months on payment of all installments due between March 1 and May 31.

The RBI further allowed the banks to extend the moratorium till August 31, but cautioned against the health of the bank sector.

Later, the Centre said the loan moratorium can be extended to two years, as the top court of the country asked it to clear its stand.

Precious Kashmir News
Srinagar, Oct 13: Observing that State as employer is entitled to prescribe qualifications as a condition of eligibility, J&K High Court on Tuesday set aside its single bench judgment which had held candidates possessing B. Pharmacy eligible for posts of Junior Pharmacist as against 10+2 and Diploma in Pharmacy as basic requirement.

On 19 September 2017, the court’s single bench had held that the candidates possessing higher Degree of B. Pharmacy could not be treated as “ineligible” for the post of Junior Pharmacist advertised by the Services Selection Board in 2013. The Single Bench had quashed the select list prepared by the SSB and directed reframing of the same and recommending them for appointment against the advertised posts.

“Participation of the writ petitioners (candidates possessing B Pharmacy) in the written test and interview or the fact that their names had figured in merit list would not alter the situation and make them eligible for the post, especially so when the Government had clearly conveyed to the Board that candidates possessing B. Pharmacy were not eligible for the post,” a bench of Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and Rajnesh Oswal.

Referring to the judgment of the Supreme Court, the division bench said that law was settled that prescription of qualification for a post is a matter of recruitment policy.

“The State as employer is entitled to prescribe qualifications as a condition of eligibility after taking into consideration nature of job, aptitudes required for efficient discharge of duties, functionality of qualifications, course content leading up to acquisition of qualification etc,” the court said.

Further, the court said, the judicial review cannot expand upon the ambit of prescribed qualifications to decide equivalence thereof.

“In absence of specific statutory rule under which holding of higher qualification could presuppose acquisition of lower qualification, such inference cannot be drawn,” the court said as per Global News Service, adding, “It is also settled that the Note of the advertisement notice postulating that mere possession of prescribed qualification would not entitle a candidate to be called for written test or interview and the Board may shortlist among eligible candidates by granting weightage to higher qualification as may be decided by it, merely indicates that Board is vested with discretion in pursuance of enabling power which it may or may not exercise, and that a candidate has no vested right to assert that Board must as a mandate assign additional weightage to higher qualification.”

Allowing the appeals filed by the JKSSB and aggrieved candidates, the court said that its single bench while holding that the candidates with higher degree could not be excluded from the select list, has been clearly in error. “It is held that a candidate holding the Degree of Bachelor of Pharmacy (B. Pharmacy) is not eligible for appointment to the post of Junior Pharmacist in the Health Department of erstwhile State of J&K (now UT of Jammu and Kashmir), for which Diploma Pharmacy is the qualification prescribed by the Rules,” the court said. (GNS)

Owais Gul
Srinagar, Oct 13: Authorities have failed to fill the vacant posts of Project Manager Srinagar as well as Engineers in Jammu and Kashmir Small Scale Industries Development Corporation Limited (SICOP), thus paving way for additional charge syndrome and simultaneously affecting the functioning of the corporation.
Reliable sources said dozens of posts including the Project Manager Srinagar and Engineers are lying vacant in the corporation for years together and nobody is paying heed to fill the vacancies.
The functioning of the corporation has got badly hit due to the non-filling of the vacant posts, they said, adding that an official is holding more than one charge in one go and thus is affecting the functioning of the corporation.
They said there are thousands of youth across Jammu and Kashmir, who are moving from pillar to post in search of jobs and at this time, when the vacancies are already there, it would help the administration in accommodating the huge chunk of educated but unemployed youth at these posts.
Many of officers in SICOP have not been transferred from last nearly one decade, which has put a question mark over the functioning of the corporation.
Even the employees who were sent on deputations have not been sent back to their departments despite getting requests from the higher ups many times in the recent past.
Managing Director, SICOP, Atul Sharma admitted the shortage of employees in the corporation and stated that there is dearth of engineers and other officers in the SICOP. (KNO)