Chandigarh, Jul 2 (PTI) The Haryana Vigilance Bureau has booked a former chairman and the then members of the Haryana Staff Selection Commission over alleged irregularities in the recruitment of 1,983 physical training instructors for government schools.

The recruitment was made in 2010 during the Congress regime in the state.

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Earlier, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had quashed the appointments, which was later upheld by the apex court.

In the FIR registered on June 30 by the bureau at Panchkula, the former chairman and members, who have been made co-accused, were booked for allegedly misusing their positions and changing selection criteria to help certain candidates get selected, officials said here on Thursday.

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At that time, Brig Nand Lal Poonia (retd) was the chairman of the HSSC.

Physical training instructors teach physical education and other subjects in government schools.

The case was registered on a complaint by the vigilance bureau's DSP following a communication from Haryana's Advocate General B R Mahajan, who after going through the court verdict regarding the selection of the instructors had asked for a vigilance probe.

The FIR does not name any accused.

The case was registered under various IPC provisions pertaining to criminal misconduct by a public servant, forgery for the purpose of cheating, false evidence, public servant disobeying law, and under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

A single-judge bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on September 11, 2012, had set aside the selection of the 1,983 instructors made by the commission on April 10, 2010 in pursuance of the advertisement issued in 2006 on account of changes made in the selection process.

In April this year, the Supreme Court had upheld the decision of the Punjab and Haryana High Court quashing the appointment of the 1,983 physical training instructors in schools of Haryana and asked the state staff selection commission to conduct the recruitment process afresh.

The apex court had upheld the verdicts passed by the single and division benches of the High Court quashing the appointment process conducted during the then Congress government led by Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

After the apex court orders, the state government retrenched the instructors.

The High Court had earlier observed that the HSSC was nothing but "one-man show" during the selections.

In the complaint lodged on June 30, it has been alleged that the then chairman changed the selection criteria on three occasions to benefit certain candidates.

On June 15 this year, Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala had urged the Haryana government to reinstate the 1,983 sacked physical training instructors by issuing an ordinance and ratifying it through a bill passed by the state legislature.

In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, Surjewala had suggested a "draft bill" for "providing security of service to these instructors in the interest of justice and equity".

The senior Congress leader had said that the sacked instructors had played no role in the selection process and had participated in good faith and a bona fide manner.

"To penalise them for no fault of their own and for any infirmities caused by the recruiting authority would amount to a dereliction of duty and gross injustice on the part of the Haryana state government,” he had said.

Surjewala had said the instructors were innocent and the court has not held them guilty for any malicious act.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)