KSU demands Govt to rectify eligibility criteria for recruitment in Directorate of Forensic Science 

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaSeptember 24, 2024

The Khasi Students Union (KSU) on Tuesday demanded scrapping of the eligibility criteria of having a master degree in forensic science for recruitment in the Directorate of Forensic Science. 

In a letter to the Director of DFS, KSU employment monitoring cell chairman Reuben Najiar said, “Hence, the Union demands that the said advertisement published by the MPSC on the requisition by the Directorate of Forensic Science must be changed. The eligibility criteria of having a master degree in forensic science must be scraped and should be rectified to any equivalent science subjects as per law and not to deviate from the process.”

“The Union humbly request you to reconsider and rectify the above advertisement as soon as possible, so that other candidates would be able to apply for such,” he said. 

Expressing concern over the methodology opted by the Directorate for its recruitment, Najiar said the MPSC in its advertisement dated 19th of September, 2024 had published various posts for 

Scientific Officer, Senior Scientific Assistant, Scientific Assistant in the Mobile Forensic Crime Scene Unit under the Directorate of Forensic Science which are 27 posts in total. 

The Union has observed that eligibility criteria for these posts is that they must have a master degree in forensic science in order to be able to apply, whereas the candidates who have passed from other science subjects are not given an opportunity to apply for such posts.

The Union has made a comparison in this regard and has seen that in all the other states of the country, candidates who have a master degree in any science subjects such as physics, chemistry, zoology, etc., can apply for such posts and its not only limited to master degree holders in forensic science. Thus, this particular eligibility criteria put forward by the Directorate has devoid opportunities to candidates who have a master degree in other science subjects.

Highlighting certain points to show that this eligibility criteria is flawed and is needed to be reconsidered, Najiar said, “Firstly, master degree in forensic science is not available in the State as of yet and if any individual wants to study this subject has to go out of the State to pursue its course. 

Thus, only a person with sustainable financial background would be able to pursue the course, whereas a person coming from financially weaker section would not be able to pursue its study. Moreover, there are only handful of students from Meghalaya who pursue this course, and with the number of vacancies, perhaps it may not be able to fill up the vacancies.”

“Secondly, as per the Meghalaya Forensic Science Laboratory Services Rules, 2021 it has clearly indicated that for these posts mentioned above, the qualification is to have a degree in any general science stream and it is not restricted to having a degree in general sciences. Thus, the Directorate pursuing with the eligibility criteria of having a master degree in forensic science is in conflict with the existing rules and thus it is highly illegal and in contempt of deviating from the prescribed law,” he added.

Further, the KSU leader stated that the Union has also come across the contractual appointment which was done in the month of November and December, 2023 for the post of scientific officers and others, whereby the eligibility criteria was made to have a degree in forensic science. 

“This was done only to limit the opportunities of sciences students coming from another discipline and to favour some candidates who are backed up by politicians and bureaucrats to enter into such posts by changing the eligibility criteria in order to favour them,” he stated in the letter.