IMPHAL, May 11 - The High Court of Manipur on Friday ordered postponement of preliminary examination of the Manipur Civil Service Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, scheduled on May 12.
Justice Lanusungkum Jamir passed the order after hearing of a writ petition that alleged that the �Manipur Public Service Commission (MPSC) is going to conduct the examination without appointing Controller of Examination, among others� as directed by the High Court earlier.
In February 28, 2017, the High Court directed the MPSC to conduct examinations only after the appointment of Controller of Examination and the MPSC failed to comply with the direction, the judge observed.
A counter affidavit filed by the MPSC in response to the latest writ petition indicated that the MPSC had written to the chief secretary of Manipur Government for appointment of the Controller of Examination only on May 9.
�This would clearly indicate that the direction passed by this Court in the judgment dated 28-2-2017 has not been complied with,� the judge said in his order passed on Friday.
The judge observed that the steps for appointment of a Controller of Examination in the MPSC were taken up much later after the advertisement for the conduct of the preliminary exam. The advertisement was issued on January 8, 2019. In the absence of the appointment of a Controller of Examination and the other directions passed by the Court in the judgment passed on February 28, 2017, the preliminary examination scheduled on May 12, 2019 shall remain suspended till the next returnable date, the judgment passed by Justice Lanusungkum Jamir stated.
Conscious of the fact that there are thousands of aspirants vying for selection pursuant to the advertisement dated January 8, 2019 particularly taking into consideration that this is one of the most prestigious examination conducted by the MPSC, the Court does not want to keep the matter lingering for a long time.
Accordingly, the Court further directed the respondents of the writ petition (Manipur Government and others) to file affidavit as well as take appropriate instructions on or before May 15, 2019. The judge further asked the petitioners to file if any rejoinder on their part to submit it on or before May 20, which the Court fixed to dispose the writ petition.
It can be noted here that a group of civil service aspirants filed the writ petition against MPSC conducting the preliminary examination without appointing Controller of Examinations and absence of proper rules and regulations.
