HESC chairperson: fresh PIL challenges Pandey’s appointment

Pandey, an IAS officer, took charge of HESC on July 20 after then acting-chairperson Ramvir Yadav was removed following High Court observations regarding his eligibility for the post.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice Yashwant Varma passed the order on Tuesday, while hearing a PIL filed by Rural and Urban Development and Research Association.

The PIL alleges that Pandey did not hold the eligibility as per Section 4 (2) (b) of the UP Higher Education Services Commission Act, 1980, in which the incumbent was supposed to be an IAS officer, having held the position of the post of secretary to the Government of Uttar Pradesh.

The court said: “In the present case, the third respondent (Pandey) held the post of collector and district magistrate. The case of the state is that he was granted a super time pay scale of Rs 37,400-67,000 and grade pay of Rs 10,000 with effect from 1 January, 2015. We direct that a counter affidavit be filed by the state and by the third respondent.”

State government’s submission was that this pay scale was equivalent to the post of secretary.

Earlier, a petition filed against Yadav and two other members had questioned the eligibility, in which the section pertaining to ‘people having contributed in the field of education’ was invoked to grant them high offices. The petition had also alleged that Yadav had himself failed to be selected as a principal of a degree college, a post he is supposed to clear in his capacity as the acting chairperson.