INFORMATION ASSISTANT, CLASS III, COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION RULES, 2015

PREAMBLE

In exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to Art. 309 of the Constitution of India, the Governor of Gujarat hereby makes the following rules to provide for regulating the method of competitive examination for recruitment to the post of Information Assistant, Class III, in the subordinate service under the Commissionerate of Information, Gujarat State, namely:

Rule - 1. Short title and application.

(1)     These rules may be called the Information Assistant, Class III, Competitive Examination Rules, 2015.

(2)     They shall come into force on the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

(3)     They shall apply to the persons, who are eligible to be appointed by direct recruitment to the post of Information Assistant, Class III, in the subordinate service under the Commissionerate of Information, Gujarat State.

Rule - 2. Definitions.

In these rules, unless the context otherwise requires,

(a)      "Appendix" means Appendix appended to these rules;

(b)      "Government" means the Government of Gujarat;

(c)      "examination" means the competitive examination held by the Board under these rules for the purpose of direct recruitment to the post of Information Assistant, Class III.

(d)      "Board' means the Gujarat Subordinate Services Selection Board, Gandhinagar.

Rule - 3. Eligibility.

A candidate shall not be qualified for admission to the examination unless he is a citizen of India.

Rule - 4. Disqualification for appointment on ground of plural marriage.

(1)     No person, who

(a)        has entered into or contracted a marriage with a person having spouse living; or

(b)        having a spouse living, has entered into or contracted a marriage with any person;

Shall be eligible for appointment to the post:

Provided that the Government may, if satisfied that such marriage is permissible under the personal law applicable to such person and the other party to the marriage and that there are special grounds for doing so, exempt any person from the operation of this rule.

(2)     The candidate shall declare in the application form whether he or she as the case may be, is married and in the case of the male candidate he has more than one wife living; and in the case of female candidate whether she has married to a man who has already another wife living.

Rule - 5. Educational qualification.

A candidate possessing the requisite educational qualifications for the appointment to the post of Information Assistant, Class III, prescribed under the relevant recruitment rules shall be eligible for admission to the examination.

Rule - 6. Age limit.

(1)     A candidate for the post of Information Assistant, Class III, shall have attended the minimum age and must not have attended the maximum age as may be prescribed under the relevant recruitment rules as on the date specified in the advertisement by the Board.

(2)     Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-rule (1) above, the upper age limit may be relaxed in favour of the candidate belonging to the reserved categories in accordance with the provisions of the Gujarat Civil Services Classification Recruitment (General) Rules, 1967.

Rule - 7. Holding of examination.

(1)     The Board shall, on receiving the requisition from the Government, by an advertisement published in the prominent news papers widely circulated in' the State call for the application in the prescribed form from the candidates possessing required qualifications for the post specified in Rule 1.

(2)     The date, time and the places for holding the examination shall be decided by the Board.

(3)     The candidate shall be required to attend Preliminary and Main examination at his own expenses.

Rule - 8. Application to appear in examination.

(1)     A candidate who desires to appear at the examination shall submit an application in such form, within such time limit as may be prescribed by the Board along with such fees in such manner as may be fixed by the Government.

(2)     The fees once paid shall not be refunded or held over for the subsequent examination in any circumstances.

Rule - 9. Decision of the Board to be final.

(1)     No candidate shall be allowed to appear at the examination unless the Board is satisfied that,

(a)      the candidate possesses the requisite qualification under the relevant recruitment rule for the said post; and

(b)      he has paid the requisite fees along with the 'application

(2)     The decision of the Board as to the eligibility of a candidate for admission to the main examination shall be final.

(3)     No candidate shall be allowed to appear at the examination unless the Board is satisfied that the candidate is eligible in all respect and complied with all the requirements.

(4)     if at any time, the candidate is found not eligible to appear at the examination, his candidature shall be cancelled even if already selected and appointed, his appointment shall be treated as cancelled ab-initio and his service shall be terminated forthwith:

Provided that such candidate shall be given an opportunity of being heard before terminating his service.

Rule - 10. Mode of examination.

(1)     The Examination shall comprise of two stages, as specified in Appendix in the following manner, namely:

Part I: Preliminary Examination (Screening test-Objective type) for selection of candidates for admission to the main Examination.

Part II: Main Examination.

(2)     The Board shall, after receiving the applications from the candidates, verify the applications in accordance with these rules and call the eligible candidate for preliminary, examination as specified in part I of the Appendix.

(3)     The Board shall hold the main examination for those candidates who have obtained the minimum qualifying marks in the preliminary examination as may be determined by the Board.

(4)     The number of candidates called for main examination shall ordinarily be six times the number of vacancies requisitioned.

(5)     The Board shall declare the list of successful candidates in preliminary examination.

Rule - 11. Papers and syllabus.

The syllabus of the preliminary and main examination shall be as specified in part I and II of the Appendix append of these rules.

Rule - 12. Medium of examination.

(1)     The medium of preliminary examination shall be Gujarati except the portion of English questions.

(2)     The medium of main examination shall be as per the instructions given in the examination paper.

Rule - 13. Qualifying standard for passing of examination.

The qualifying standard for preliminary and mains examination shall be determined by the Board for reserved and non-reserved categories of candidates. However, minimum qualifying standard that may be determined by the Board shall not in any case be less than 40% of marks in each test. The candidates who qualify in the written test according to the qualifying standard determined by the Board shall only be called for main examination.

Rule - 14. Ineligibility on failure to attend main examination.

The candidate, who is qualified in the preliminary examination and called for main examination but fails to attend the main examination on the specified date and time, shall not be eligible for selection.

Rule - 15. Preparation of the Select List and Waiting List.

(1)     The Board shall cause to prepare a select list of the successful candidates in order of merit on the basis of aggregate marks finally awarded to each candidate in the mains examination and in that order, the Board shall forward the same with its recommendation to the Government.

(2)     The Board shall also prepare a waiting list showing the names of successful candidate as far as feasible for about ten per cent, of number of successful candidates recommended by the Board under sub-rule (1) for recommending further candidates to the Government on demand.

(3)     The result of the examination shall be divided into two parts as follows, namely:

Part-I: Select List-Names of successful candidates.

Part-II: Waiting List-Names of candidates to be kept on waiting list.

(4)     The Board shall submit a copy of the result to be published in the official Gazette, to the Government.

(5)     The Board shall also recommend the names of successful candidates belonging to the Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Socially and Educationally Backward Classes, women and Ex-servicemen to the extent of the number of vacancies reserved for such categories.

Rule - 16. Result of examination.

(1)     The Board shall declare the result of the examination and submit the same to the Government.

(2)     The result of the successful candidates shall be arranged in the order of merit specifying their names, seat numbers and total marks obtained by the candidates and the same shall be caused to be published in the Official Gazette, by the Board.

(3)     The Board shall display on the website of the Board, the result of the successful candidates included in part I, part II and the list of unsuccessful candidates, specifying their names, seat numbers and total marks obtained by them.

(4)     The Board shall communicate the result to the successful candidates individually in the manner as may be decided by it.

Rule - 17. No right to appointment.

The successful candidates shall ordinarily be considered for appointment to the post in order of merit determined by the Board up to the number of posts to be filled in. Mere success in passing of the examination shall not itself confer upon a candidate any right to appointment and no candidates shall be appointed to the post unless the appointing authority is satisfied, after such inquiries as may be considered necessary, that the candidate is suitable in all respects for appointment to public services.

Rule - 18. Medical examination.

The candidates qualified for appointment shall require to pass the medical examination in accordance with the rules made by the Government in that behalf.

Rule - 19. Disciplinary action.

A candidate who is or has been declared by the Board, to be guilty of

(a)      obtaining support for his candidature by any means; or

(b)      impersonating; or,

(c)      procuring impersonation by any person; or

(d)      submitting fabricated documents or documents which have been tampered with; or

(e)      making statement which are incorrect or false or suppressing material information; or

(f)       restoring to any other irregular or improper means in connection with his candidature for the examination; or

(g)      using unfair means during the examination; or

(h)     writing irrelevant matter, including absurd language or pornographic matter, in the scripts; or

(i)       misbehaving in any other manner in the examination hall; or

(j)       harassing or doing bodily harm to the staff employed by the board for the conduct of the examination; or

(k)      attempting to commit or, as the ease may be, abetting to commission of all or any of the acts specified in the foregoing clauses; or

(l)       violating any of the condition, for admission to appear in the examination as prescribed and specified in the admission certificate, may, in addition to rendering himself liable to criminal prosecution, be liable

(1)     to be disqualified by the Board from the examination for which he is a candidate, or

(2)     to be debarred either permanently or for a specific period

(i)       by the Board from appearing in any examination or from any interview for direct selection to be held by it, or

(ii)      by the State Government from any employment under it:

Provided that no penalty under clause (a) or (b) shall be imposed except after giving the candidate an opportunity of being heard or representation as he may wish to make in that behalf, or

(3)     to disciplinary action under the relevant rules, if he is already in Government service.

Rule - 20. Mark-sheet and rechecking of marks.

(1)     A candidate, who desires to have his marks of the Preliminary examination rechecked, may apply to the Board along with such fees as may be fixed by the Board within a period of fifteen days from the date of declaration of the result of the Preliminary examination.

(2)     A candidate, who desires to have his mark-sheet of the main examination shall apply to the Board along with such fees as may be fixed by the Board for each paper within a period of fifteen days from the date of declaration of the final result of the examination.

Rule - 21. Prohibition to user certain devices in examination hall.

A candidate shall not be allowed to carry with him a cellular phone, lap-top, calculator, pager or any other electronic communication devices.

Rule - 22. Conduct and regulation of examination.

The board shall regulate all matters relating to appointment of examiners and conduct of examination in accordance with the procedure adopted by it and in uniformity with the government's order in that behalf.

Rule - 23. Training and Examination.

The selected candidates shall be required to undergo pre-service training and pass the post training examination and the departmental examination, if any, in accordance with rules as prescribed by the Government in that behalf.

APPENDIX

[See Rule 11]

Part 1-Syllabus for the Information Assistant, Class III Preliminary Examination

Note 1. The standard and the course content of Gujarati and English Grammar for preliminary Examination Paper shall be of Twelfth standard of Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.

2. The question papers shall be of the objective type (Multiple choice questions). Every attempted question with incorrect answer shall carry a negative mark of 0.33.

Part 2-Main Examination (3 Hours for each paper)

Note. (1) The standard and the syllabus for Paper 1 and 2 shall be of Twelfth standard of The Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.

(2) The syllabus for paper 3, 4 and 5 shall be as under-

Paper 3: (1) News writing:

Press note writing

Event based article writing

Photo Caption and photo story writing

Report writing

TV Story writing

Paper 4: (1) Legal aspects and Ethics of the journalism.

Registration and Declaration.

Fundamental function of following Institutes.

egistrar of News Paper for India

irectorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity

Press Council of India

Prasar Bharati

Press Registration and Books Act, 1867.

(2) Communication through publications

Books, pamphlets, folders

Paper 5: (1) Types of Advertisement and Writing Style

Print/Electronic Media advertisement

Radio Jingle

(2) Traditional Media

Bhavai, Dayaro etc.

Role of Traditional Media in Publicity

(3) Social Media and Web Media

Basic knowledge and Use of E-mail, smart phone based applications and Web Media.