Shillong, May 12: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Thursday said that departments can go ahead with recruitment and appointments according to the roster system, which has been adopted for implementation of the state’s job reservation policy.

This comes a day after the Meghalaya High Court dropped the suo motu proceedings following the state government’s decision to put in place a roster system. However, the injunction restraining further recruitment will continue till the previous occupants in the relevant posts have been identified, whereupon the injunction will cease to operate, the court had said.

When asked, Sangma said that the point is that the government will have to complete the entire process of actually implementing the roster system and giving the whole details of the appointments that were made from the point in time when the policy came in or when the cadres came into existence.

“Such details have to be worked out by each of the departments. As and when each department does it, then they can go ahead with the recruitments and appointments,” he clarified.

Stating that the matter is not going back to court, the chief minister said that the court has given instruction that every department will have to ensure that the roster system is applied.

He added, “If the departments can do it by tomorrow, particularly bigger departments having much more numbers and long history they require a week, 10 days or maybe a month so as soon as they finish their own internal exercise they can go ahead with the appointment.”

On the recruitment process in the police department, Sangma said, “As soon as the police are able to give the entire breakup of all the recruitments that have taken place in the past and put them in the roster system from day one, they can start recruiting or they can start appointing from tomorrow itself if they finish the exercise.”

In its order, the Meghalaya High Court while indicating that the injunction restraining further recruitment will continue had said, “This will apply to every post covered by reservation so that future recruitment is made only upon ascertaining the vacant slots that need to be filled up.” It added, “Only upon such exercise being completed, may fresh recruitment to the relevant post be undertaken. This will apply to every entry-level post in every organisation where reservation is applicable.”

The court had further made it clear that the validity of the roster system has not been gone into. It also clarified that the gradation list in every post will have no nexus with the roster system as the gradation list will be governed by the merit positions occupied by the persons collectively recruited.