No bar on bank recruitment tests Friday as judge freezes HC order

Written tests to recruit officers for eight banks will be held on Friday as scheduled, as a chamber judge has frozen the previous High Court order.

Staff Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 11 Jan 2018, 09:16 AM
Updated : 11 Jan 2018, 10:44 AM

The High Court on Sunday halted entry tests for nationalised Sonali, Rupali and Janata banks following a petition challenging last year’s job circulars issued by eight banks in different times.

That postponed the Jan 12 written tests to recruit senior officers, officers and cash officers for eight state-owned banks, including the three state-owned lenders, lawyers had said at the time.

The Supreme Court’s chamber cleared the restriction on Thursday after the Bangladesh Bank moved a petition.

In 2016, Sonali Bank issued a circular to recruit 701 officers and cash officers to fill vacant posts. The same year, Rupali Bank issued a circular to fill 423 vacancies as senior officers on July 26 and Janata Bank sought to appoint 736 assistant executive officers.

The central bank did not hold the tests at the time and published a new circular last year for recruiting senior officers (general) to eight state banks, declaring 1,663 vacancies.

It advertised 3,463 jobs in state-run banks and financial institutions. Later, it ran a separate notice seeking to recruit 2,246 cash officers.

The central bank set Jan 12 to hold the written tests for all the circulars published in 2017.

But 28 aspirants, who had applied for the jobs following the 2016 notices, took the issue to the High Court and secured a freeze on the recruitment tests following all circulars issued in 2017.

It also issued a set of rules asking the authorities why the job circulars issued in 2017 should not declared illegal and why it should not order that the tests of the 2016 circulars be held before those of the 2017.