The Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission has strongly countered the ‘information being shared on social media as well as press statements issued by a number of political parties, seeking rescheduling of J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination proposed to be held from 8th April 2022 to 17th April 2022’ and clarified its position with regard to conduct of J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination, 2021.

To set the record straight, dates and events relevant and leading to conduct of J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination from 8th April, 2022, the J&K PSC has reproduced the factual details.

The details describes that preliminary exam held on 24th October, 2021; 20790 candidates appeared in the examination; preliminary exam results declared on 13th November, 2021 and 4545 candidates declared eligible for appearing in J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination, 2021; first public notice issued on 13th November indicating first fortnight of February, 2022 as the likely date of start of mains examinations; second notification inviting applications for mains was issued on 26th November indicating date of exam commencement as 14th February, 2022; keeping in view the onset of 3rd wave of COVID-19 and conduct of Indian Forest Service Examination, 8th March, 2022 was fixed for commencement of J&K Combined Competitive (Main) examination, 2021. However, this was revised to 10th March so as to facilitate candidates appearing in the IFoS examination by issuing a notification dated 22nd February.

J&K PSC further said that few unqualified candidates approached High Court on 21.02.2022 and obtained interim orders which were contested by the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission. Due to these interim orders certain contingencies arose and resultantly exam had to be postponed on 9th March till further notice. The High Court reserved the Judgment on 16th March, 2022 and the same was announced on 01.04.2022 and a public notice (date-sheet) was issued on 01.04.2022 itself for conduct of J&K Combined Competitive (Main) Examination from 8th April, 2022 - 17 April 2022.

Attempts have been made to mislead the general public with reference to rule 32 of Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (Business Rules & Procedure) Rules, 2021 claiming that the rule envisages an intimation period of at least one month before commencement of examination. To put things in perspective, it is important to refer to rules 26 (Receipt of Applications), 27 (Scrutiny of Applications), 28 (Determination of Eligibility) and 29 (Appellate Authority) of said rules before conclusions are made since rule 32 is to be read conjointly with the aforementioned rules and is not to be read in isolation.

To make things even clearer, it is vehemently reiterated that rule 32 is relevant only when a fresh notification for recruitment is issued and in the present case the chronology of dates makes it amply clear that since the issuance of first notice on 13th November, 2021 almost 145 number of days have passed and for the candidates to claim that sufficient notice has not been provided is nothing but a mischievous attempt to mislead and cast aspersions on the fairness of the process adopted by the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission.

The Commission makes it clear that it is making every effort to conduct the J&K Combined Competitive (Mains) Examination, 2021 in a fair and transparent manner and the same shall be held from 8th April, 2022 as per date sheet already notified in this regard.