This is to bring to your notice the plight of 10,661 candidates selected in the 2016 Combined Graduate Level (CGL) examination, conducted by the Staff Selection Commission.
In the said examination, 10,661 candidates were declared successful for posting to various government ministries and departments. The notification for the above exam was released in February 2016 and after going through a four-stage rigorous process, the final result was declared on August 5, 2017.
The whole process took more than 18 months which excludes the time required for joining formalities. Thereafter, some rejected candidates filed a case in CAT against their reasons for rejection, which was using unfair means (UFM). The court put stay on the joining of the selected candidates but permitted SSC to continue the pre-appointment formalities. Yet, the SSC opted to halt all the process.
On October 23, 2017, the honourable CAT gave its verdict asking SSC to include rejected candidates purely on merit basis and vacated the stay. Since then, the SSC has halted our joining. It is neither appealing in a higher court, nor starting the joining process of selected candidates.
More than four months have passed since the declaration of the final results but we are still not sure if we will be able to join in the next few months. Many of us are facing a financial crisis and this job is our only hope. We sent various grievances, filed multiple RTIs to SSC but to no avail. The irony is that we are suffering after doing everything right in the examination and nobody is concerned about it.
Our PM promised to complete the recruitment process within six months but here, the chief recruiting body of the Central government for appointment to various group B and C posts is undermining the instructions of the PM.
This delay is not just a financial loss to us but more than that, it is a mental agony. The lethargic approach of the SSC is a mental harassment to young minds and is reducing the enthusiasm of fresh candidates to work for the government. It is creating a negative impact in the minds of selected candidates towards government jobs.