The high court of Uttarakhand has directed the state government to appoint 600 pharmacists on contract in a period of three months. Hearing on the petition filed in the matter, the single bench of justice Manoj Tiwari directed the State Government to hold talks with the Central Government and completing the appointment process in the next three months, ascertain appointment letters to the pharmacists.
During the previous hearing on the petition, the high court had directed the State to clarify the position regarding appointment of pharmacists on contract. In response, the State submitted on Thursday that the recruitment advertisement regarding the pharmacists had not been cancelled by the state. Talks were being held with the Centre regarding the fulfillment of recruitment procedure standards.
According to the case details, Pauri resident Manoj Tripathi had filed a petition in 2017 stating that during 2016, the state government had issued a recruitment advertisement for 600 posts of pharmacists on contract. Thousands of candidates eligible for the posts had applied in response to the advertisement. In the past, the State Government had told the court that the selection process would be completed soon. On this basis, the court had disposed of the petition. However, as the State Government did not move ahead with the selection process, Roshan Kumar from Pauri had filed a second petition in the case. In his petition, Kumar had stated that the Government was going to cancel the recruitment advertisement and not take the recruitment process forward. The petitioner state that this was akin to playing with the future of the applicants. During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner also informed the court that in the past the State government had stated in the past that it was proceeding with the recruitment process but this was not done. Taking serious cognisance of the matter, the high court single bench gave the State Government three month time to expedite the procedure for appointment of pharmacists on contract.