Gandhinagar, Sep 5 (IANS): Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday announced that all candidates selected for government posts will be immediately given appointment letters while new recruitments for vacant positions will be announced soon. He said that in the next 5 months, appointments will be made to more than 20,000 government jobs in the state.

Rupani has asked government recruitment agencies to resume the recruitment process that had been stalled so far due to a case pending in the Gujarat High Court regarding a General Administration Department (GAD) order dated August 1, 2018. The High Court had overturned that order on Tuesday.

The Chief Minister had convened a meeting with the Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC), Gaun Seva Pasandgi Mandal (subordinate class services selection federation), Panchayat Seva Pasandgi Mandal, and officials for police recruitment, GAD and the Education Department on Tuesday.

The meeting decided that appointment letters will be immediately issued for the 8,000 government vacancies for which the recruitment process was completed but the appointment process stalled due to the pandemic.

Rupani said that recruitment exams for vacant posts, which had been announced earlier, will be conducted once the pandemic situation normalises.

"The announcement on recruitment for 9,650 government positions was made before the pandemic; the recruitment process for that will also be started from January 2021," Rupani said on Saturday.

The development comes after the High Court verdict setting aside the GAD order dated August 1, 2018, which disallowed meritorious women in reserved categories to be considered in the general category.

The GAD had passed the order wherein it was said that female candidates in reserved categories applying for government jobs shall be considered only under the SC, ST, and OBC quota and not under the General Category despite their higher position in the merit list. The High Court on Tuesday had overturned that order.