Srinagar, May 22 -- Srinagar- In a strong indictment of backdoor appointments and subsequent regularisation policies, the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has held that permitting the State to make ad hoc and temporary appointments through a "pick-and-choose" method without open advertisement or competitive selection amounts to a "fraud on the Constitution."

A Division Bench comprising Justice Sanjeev Kumar and Justice Sanjay Parihar further observed that constitutional courts cannot direct regularisation of such appointees, termed as "backdoor entrants", at the cost of eligible candidates who were denied a fair opportunity to compete for public employment under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

The court made the observations in ligh...