HC’s activism, Patna style: ‘We will certify President’s Rule here’

‘‘You (the government) did not fill any vacancy of teachers of primary schools since 1991. Now that Lok Sabha elections are round the corner you have applied Chanakya’s brains and advertised to recruit over 34,000 trained and untrained teachers without announcing any examination schedule and reserving over 70 per cent seats for women and minorities,’’ the judges who sat for over three hours beyond schedule said.

The judges flew into a rage when on their insistent queries about when the exams could be held at the earliest, the chairman of state Staff Selection Board (SSB) Phool Singh said the preliminaries could not be conducted before October. ‘‘By that time the parliamentary polls might be over and you will put the entire recruitment process in cold storage,’’ the bench commented.

The court reprimanded Singh and SSB Commissioner (Primary Education) Anil Kumar for ‘‘standing casually’’ with hands in their trouser pockets. ‘‘You should behave in a proper manner,’’ the judges said.

The state government, shying away from recruitment to administrative services for long citing financial constraints, had called for applications to fill some 80,000 vacancies including that of 34,000 teachers just a month ago.