JPSC chairman Dilip Prasad

Ranchi, April 13: The state government today put Jharkhand Public Service Commission (JPSC) chairman Dilip Prasad under suspension after the President of India gave his assent to initiate a probe against him for having allegedly favoured friends and relatives in the recruitments of civil servants and lecturers.

Chief secretary Ashok Kumar Singh told The Telegraph that senior-most JPSC member A.K. Sengupta would officiate as acting chairman.

Governor M..H. Farook gave his assent to suspend Prasad on the recommendation of chief minister Shibu Soren today based on the President’s reference to the Supreme Court in the matter.

On February 25 last year, when the state was under president’s rule, then Governor Syed Sibtey Razi had sought the President’s assent to initiate a probe against Prasad and two former JPSC members, Gopal Prasad Singh and Radha Govind Singh Nagesh, for irregularities committed while conducting recruitment tests.

According to a Raj Bhavan source, no action was initiated against Singh and Nagesh as they had retired from service.

“The Union government made some queries and sought evidence in support of charges from the state government which we furnished in due course. The reference was made to the apex court by the President in the second half of March 2010,” a source in the state government said.

As per rules, alleged acts of omission and commission by the chairman and members of state public service commissions are to be probed by a Supreme Court judge after a presidential nod.

The governor’s approval had come in the backdrop of Raj Bhavan receiving a clutch of complaints, including one from the UGC, seeking his intervention in the JPSC’s appointment of 239 civil servants and 1,044 lecturers, at least 36 of whom were said to be relatives or friends of the JPSC members and politicians.

Razi had also ordered a vigilance probe into alleged irregularities in examinations conducted by the JPSC to recruit 60 deputy collectors on January 28 last year.