Kashmir Impulse Desk

Srinagar, July 29

The Central Administrative Tribunal in Srinagar has directed authorities not to fill a Panchayat Secretary post for which a candidate was selected, after he alleged his appointment was withheld because of his brother’s purported involvement in unlawful activities.

A division bench comprising Judicial Member M S Latif and Administrative Member Prasant Kumar issued the interim direction while hearing a petition filed by Aadil Rashid.

Rashid’s lawyer, Faizan Majid Bhat, said his client had applied under the open merit category in response to a 2022 recruitment notification issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board and secured 86.5 marks.

He appeared for document verification in June 2024, where his candidature was accepted without objection, the lawyer said.

The Rural Development Department later placed him second in the final selection list issued in September 2025 and asked him to submit details for the Employee Verification System.

Despite completing the selection and verification process, Rashid was not issued an appointment order, the lawyer said.

He later learnt that the appointment had allegedly been withheld because of his brother’s involvement in unlawful activities, the petitioner’s counsel argued.

The lawyer said Rashid had no criminal case against him and had never been declared ineligible or unsuitable for government employment.

“The criminal activity is akin to the person and not otherwise, and a person cannot be made to suffer for the sins of his relation kith or kin,” the counsel submitted.

The tribunal issued notice on the petition, which was accepted by Additional Advocate General Satinder Singh and Deputy Advocate General Syed Musaib on behalf of the respondents. They were given six weeks to file their response.

In granting interim relief, the bench referred to an example involving Welsh students cited by former British judge Lord Denning in his book The Due Process of Law.

The tribunal said a prima facie case for intervention had been made out without commenting on the merits of the petition.

It ordered that the post for which Rashid had been selected should not be advertised or filled by any mode until the next hearing, subject to the respondents’ objections.

The case has been listed for further consideration on October 13.