Patiala: The recruitment process for 42 posts of research assistant in the Punjab Bhasha Vibhag (state language department) has faced intense scrutiny after allegations of irregularities, arbitrary rule changes and violation of eligibility criteria.

The issue has not only upset several eligible candidates but has also reached the Punjab and Haryana high court.

The Punjab Subordinate Services Selection Board (PSSSB) issued Advt No. 5/2023 on Aug 23, 2023, inviting applications for the posts of research assistant.

According to the state language department’s earlier norms, eligibility was restricted to candidates with a postgraduate degree in Punjabi, Hindi or English, along with proven creative writing and two years of teaching experience in recognised institutions.

However, for the current recruitment, the department controversially expanded the scope to include candidates holding post-graduate degrees in Urdu, Sanskrit, Economics, Sociology, Geography, MTech (IT), MSc (Chemistry, Physics, Botany, Zoology) and even LLM.

This shift from language-centric qualification has raised concerns, especially since in 2023, research officers were recruited strictly from language-related fields. Critics argue that candidates specialising in Punjabi and other languages have been unfairly sidelined in favour of unrelated disciplines.

Activist Jagsir Singh, citing documents obtained through an RTI, alleged that the rule change was carried out to accommodate two employees from within the department itself.

He further pointed out that 110 candidates, including himself, were included in the merit list. However, many of these candidates were from technical backgrounds or from languages other than Punjabi, Hindi and English.

Jagsir said research assistants, once appointed, were eligible for promotion to research officer after three years of service, calling it a “cruel joke” on the candidates holding postgraduate degrees in Punjabi.

“The govt talks about promoting Punjabi language, but the very jobs meant for Punjabi scholars are being handed over to candidates from technical fields,” Jagsir remarked, adding that complaints from various candidates had reached the Bhasha Vibhag in the last several months but these fell on deaf ears.

Despite warnings from the PSSSB that altering eligibility rules could invite legal complications, the department went ahead with the recruitment. Recently, 22 shortlisted candidates were called to undergo medical examinations. The language department also informed them that a separate investigation would be conducted to verify the authenticity of their submitted research papers and articles in reputed journals.

Meanwhile, a group of aggrieved candidates, led by Sandeep Kaur, has filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana high court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. The petition filed in July this year alleges multiple violations in the recruitment, including acceptance of teaching experience gained during MPhil/PhD studies, which was explicitly disallowed under the UGC rules.

The petitioners also flagged considering MPhil dissertations as research publications, contrary to the recruitment advertisement, failure to implement the mandatory 33% horizontal reservation for women candidates under the Punjab govt’s October 21-2020 notification, and accepting private school teaching certificates and non-academic self-published works such as guidebooks.

The petitioners, who appeared for the recruitment exam on Feb 22, 2025, argue that these actions had unjustly pushed them down the merit list, which was tentatively declared on July 3. They contended that proceeding with appointments without resolving these discrepancies undermined the principles of fairness and equal opportunity guaranteed under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

The high court is yet to deliver its verdict as the next hearing in the case is set for Nov 12 this year. However, the outcome is expected to have far-reaching implications not only for the ongoing recruitment but also for the transparency and credibility of future selection processes in the Punjab’s govt departments.

Jaswant Singh Zafar, director, Bhasha Vibhag, said: “The advertisement for recruitment was issued years before my joining. I joined in June 2024 as director. There are 44 posts of research assistants of which 42 are lying vacant. If the candidates are being selected from technical or IT fields, they will prove helpful for us in the current scenario.”

He, however, refused to comment on the sanctity of recruitment of candidates from other fields such as Physics, Botany, Economics, Geography, etc.

When asked that PSSSB in June 2024 had warned that altering eligibility rules could invite legal complications, he said: “I will look into the documents to comment on this during office time.”