A search committee headed by the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh has decided on a new Chairman for the state's Higher Education Service Commission (UPHESC) and the name of the person to be appointed to the post will be notified soon, the Allahabad High Court was told today.
 
The averment was made by Chief Secretary, Alok Ranjan in an affidavit placed before a division bench comprising Justice Tarun Agarwala and Justice P C Tripathi which was hearing a petition seeking directions to the state government for filling up the posts of Chairman and other members of UPHESC which had fallen vacant after the court, as per a number of orders passed last year, had quashed the appointments made to these offices.

On Septmeber 22 last year, the High Court had stopped the appointment of UPHESC's Chairman Lal Bihari Pandey, and two weeks later it declared the appointments of the three members of the Commission as illegal.                 

The court had held that those appointed to these posts in UPHESC did not possess the requisite qualifications and hence there appointments were "illegal", reported PTI.
 
On April 20, the court was also informed that the search committee would decide on the names of three new members of UPHESC "very soon".
 
The court fixed May 3 as the next date of hearing in the matter.