GUWAHATI, June 6 - The President of India has made a reference to the Supreme Court of India vis-�-vis removal of the suspended chairman of the Assam Public Service Commission (APSC) Rakesh Paul, the prime accused in the cash-for-job scam, even as Dibrugarh police today seized 140 more answer scripts from the APSC office.
The matter will now be viewed by the apex court and after examining, the same will be reverted to the office of the President of India with an opinion via the Central Government.
The letter dated June 3 and addressed to Chirag Bhanu, Registrar (Jud 1) by Gyanendra Dev Tripathi, Joint Secretary of the Government of India, was sent on behalf of the President of India under Article 317 of the Constitution of India.
Special public prosecutor Bijon Kumar Mahajan, when asked, said that making reference to the apex court under Article 317 of the Constitution invoked the reference/advisory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.
�The process begins here. The reference made by the President also means that the constitutional head of the country is satisfied that a prima facie case has been made out in the instant case against the suspended chairman of the APSC. The power to remove the chairman or the members of the public service commission has been vested exclusively with the President of India,� Mahajan said.
Meanwhile, Assam Police sources said the answer scripts seized from the APSC office today would be verified and sent for forensic examination. The answer scripts mostly belong to the candidates who appeared in the 2015 APSC examination.
