“The candidates alleged that the criteria followed in the recruitment process contradicts the process advertised in the notification. They levelled allegations against the administration for recruiting the candidates, who were not eligible or did not hold merit for the posts.”

SRINAGAR — Several candidates who have applied for non-teaching posts at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) have accused the authorities of flouting recruitment norms by hiring ‘acquaintances’ for the posts, putting question marks over the entire recruitment process.

The candidates have also filed a petition in a local court.

The NIT had invited online applications for the recruitment of various non-teaching posts in different departments of the institute in 2021. As per the notifications, the vacancies were advertised in October 2020 and the exams were held almost a year later, in 2021.

The candidates who had applied for the posts said that the institute has ignored the merit in the recruitment process and has consequently dropped the “deserving meritorious candidates”. The candidates said that the institute has given preference to reserved categories.

The candidates alleged that the criteria followed in the recruitment process contradicted the process advertised in the notification. They levelled allegations against the administration for selecting the candidates, who were non-eligible or less eligible for those posts, therefore dropping the deserving and eligible candidates.

“If they had specified it that the institute would choose the candidates from reserved categories, which is the norm across all institutes including NITs, IITs and other autonomous bodies, we would not have applied for the posts in the first place,” a candidate, who wished not to be named, said.

He said the NIT administration has chosen the candidates from reserved categories and dropped the toppers from the list.

The candidates said the NIT administration did not release the selection list, as is the norm, and instead distributed the appointment letters to the candidates.

“We got to know about the selected candidates after they went for joining. The selection list was uploaded 12 days later, after we pressurised the administration about the same,” Rafiq Hassan, another candidate who had applied for one of the posts, said.

“The selected candidates were given the appointment letters on 14th December. The selection list which was uploaded later on the website on 1st January, has the preparation date mentioned as 17th December,” he said.

Hassan said all this was done in a very “suspicious way”. “How can they give appointment letters before revealing and preparing the selection list,” Rafiq asked.

The candidates also alleged that the administrators appointed the “favourable candidates”. “The administrators and professors selected and appointed their acquaintances, who were known to them and were of their own interest,” said another candidate on the condition of anonymity.

He alleged that the administration dropped many toppers despite holding better merit, and selected OBC and the other reserved categories’ candidates who did not hold a merit “better than us”.

The candidates repeatedly raised the matter with the NIT administration but the admin did not respond to their queries saying “they were not answerable to them”.

Mountain Ink called NIT officials including Professor Dr Rakesh Seghal, Director and the Registrar, SK Bukhari. But they did not respond to repeated calls and messages.