Supreme Court stayed Nepal Army’s process to recruit 81 officer cadets
KATHMANDU: The Supreme Court today stayed Nepal Army’s process to recruit 81 officer cadets (66 through open competition and 15 under reservation category).
A single bench of Justice Tahir Ali Ansari issued the interim order to this effect in response to a writ petition filed by Nand Kishor Yadav of Sitapur VDC, Siraha. Yadav himself is one of the applicants.
Naming the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Defence, NA’s Directorate of Recruitment, and Public Service Commission as defendants, Yadav in his petition filed yesterday had claimed that ‘the Interim Constitution guarantees right to social justice (Article 13) and right to employment (Article 18)’ and demanded apex court intervention. Besides, the petitioner had demanded that the apex court order the defendants to reopen the vacancy for 15 seats under reservation category, said Yadav’s lawyer Dipendra Jha. The next hearing is scheduled for September 2.
NA had sought applications from interested candidates on March 29 and the results of the written exam were published on July 25.
According to Jha, there were some Madhesis among the 3,360 applicants who had cleared the IQ test conducted by the NA. “But there was not even a single Madhesi among 356 applicants passing the written test,” said Jha. Yadav himself had cleared the IQ test but had failed in the written test. “When NA seeks to recruit under both open and reservation categories, there should be competition among the equals, not among the unequals,” said Jha. “For 15 seats under reservation quota, NA should have conducted a separate competition exam for Madhesi applicants only. NA did not do it.”
When asked to respond, NA Spokesman Brig Gen Ramindra Chhetri said he was not in a position to comment as his office was yet to receive the text of the judgment. “As far as the selection process in NA is concerned, all the applicants must pass all the required tests. Once the applicants applying under reservation quota pass the required tests, they are qualified for selection from among their groups,” said Chhetri. NA is one of the state organs with abysmally low representation of Madhesi youth.
One of the points in the four-point dead that the Unified CPN-Maoist signed with the United Democratic Madhesi Front before the formation of the Baburam Bhattarai-led government had mentioned that ‘the government would immediately initiate the process to ensure representation of Madhesis in the army.By RAM KUMAR KAMAT from THT
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