Goa Gazette, No. 2526-37, 11 December 2025

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Reg. No. RNP/GOA/32/2024-2026

RNI No. GOAENG/2002/6410

Panaji, ¹¹th December, ²⁰²⁵ (Agrahayana ²⁰, ¹⁹⁴⁷) SERIES I No. 37

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

Note: There is an Extraordinary issue to the Official Gazette, Series I No. 36 dated 4-12-2025 namely, Extraordinary dated 9-

12-2025 from pages 1955 to 1984, Notification regarding the Goa Jan Vishwas (Law Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 and

Goa Land Revenue Code, 1968 (Amendment) Ordinance, 2025 from Department of Law.

INDEX

Department Type

Subject Page No

1 2

3 4 1. Law Not.- 11/4/2018/LD(Estt.)/2828 Goa State Legal Services Authority

1985

Recruitment and conditions of Service Rules, 2024.

GOVERNMENT OF GOA

Department of Law

Law (Establishment) Division

Notification

11/4/2018/LD(Estt.)/2828 Date : 24-Oct-2025

The Notification No. GSLSA/Notification/Recruitment/2024/01 dated 06th January, 2025 which has been issued by the Member Secretary, Goa State Legal Services Authority, New High Court Building at Goa, Penha-De-France, Porvorim-Goa is hereby published for general information of the public.

By order and in the name of the Governor of Goa.

Amir Y. Parab, Under Secretary (Law-Estt.).

Porvorim.

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Notification

GSLSA/Notification/Recruitment/2024/01

Date: 06th January, 2025

In exercise of the powers conferred by Section 28(1) and (2) of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, the State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court hereby makes the following rules to regulate the method of recruitment and other conditions of service of the Officers and members of the Goa State Legal Services Authority and High Court Legal Services Committee the staff

Suggestions are welcomed on e-mail: [email protected] 1985OFFICIAL GAZETTE — GOVT. OF GOA SERIES I No. 37 11TH DECEMBER, 2025 serving on the Establishment of the Goa State Legal Services Authority and all other matters incidental thereto.

1. Short title, application and commencement.— (1) These rules may be called the Goa State Legal Services Authority, Porvorim-Goa of Group B Gazetted officer and Group C (Non Gazetted) Members of the Staff on the establishment of Goa State Legal Services Authority (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2024.

(2) These Rules shall apply to the post specified in Column (2) of the Schedule to these Rules (hereafter called as the "Said Schedule").

(3) These Rules shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette.

2. Definitions.— In these rules unless the context otherwise requires—

(a) "The Chief Justice" and Patron in Chief means The Chief Justice of the High Court of Bombay.

(b) "Degree in Law" means a Degree qualifying the holder for enrollment as an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961 (Central Act 25 of 1961);

(c) "Duty" a person is said to be 'on duty' as a member of the service; (i) when he is performing the duties of a post borne on the cadre of the service, or is undergoing the probation; or (ii) When he is on joining time; or (iii) When he is absent from duty during vacation, or on authorized holidays, or on casual leave taken in accordance with the rules or instructions regulating such leave, having been on duty immediately before and immediately after such absence.

(d) "Direct Recruit" or "Nominee" means a candidate who at the time of his first appointment to the establishment of the Goa State Legal Service Authority, is not already appointed to the service of Goa State Legal Service Authority.

(e) "Deputation" means temporary transfer or borrowing the services of an officer or other employees from the District Judiciary in the State of Goa to the establishment of Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(f) "Establishment" means and includes all Offices, Departments, Sections, Branches of the Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(g) "Government" means the Government of Goa.

(h) "GSLSA" means the Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(i) "High Court Legal Services Committee" means a High Court Legal Services Committee as defined under Section 8A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

(j) "State Legal Services Authority" means the Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(k) "Other Backward Classes" means such backward classes of citizens other than Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as may be prescribed by the Goa State Government from time to time.

(l) "Scheduled Caste" and Scheduled Tribe" shall have the same meaning are assigned to them by clauses (24) and (25), respectively of Article 366 of the Constitution of India.

(m) "Scheduled" means schedule appended to these rules.

3. Appointing Authority.— The Appointing and Disciplinary Authority for all categories of Gazetted Group-B, Non-Gazetted and Group C posts shall be the Member Secretary. However the Member Secretary shall exercise the powers to issue the appointment orders subject to the approval and overall control of the Executive Chairman and The Chief Justice and Patron-in-Chief of Goa State Legal Service Authority.

4. The Sanctioned Strength of the Goa State Legal Services Authority as per Notification No. 11/4/2018-LD(Estt.)/260 dated 05th February, 2019 consist of the following classes and categories designated as under:-

5. The Goa State Legal Services Authority headed by the Executive Chairman of Goa State Legal Services Authority and Member Secretary shall exercise the power and perform the functions conferred on or assigned by the Executive Chairman of Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(1) Member Secretary of the Goa State Legal Services Authority shall be the Drawing and Disbursing Officer (DDO) of Goa State Legal Services Authority headed by the Executive Chairman.

(2) The Member Secretary of the Goa State Legal Services Authority shall route their submissions to the Hon'ble the Chief Justice and Patron in Chief through Registrar/Principal Secretary to the Hon'ble The Chief Justice, High Court of Bombay.

6. Procedure for Direct Recruitment or Nomination.— (1) Where appointment is to be made, by direct recruitment or nomination, the Member Secretary shall issue a notice inviting applications from eligible candidates for being included in the Select list of respective posts, on the official website of the Goa State Legal Services Authority. Such notice shall also be published in one widely circulated English and one widely circulated and also in one Marathi newspaper and in one widely circulated Konkani newspaper, if any.

The notice shall indicate the number of existing vacancies sought to be filled up. It may also indicate the number of vacancies that are expected to arise in next two years. In case, the expected vacancies are indicated, the selection process shall be conducted for filling up both existing and expected vacancies for one year.

(2) Such notice, in addition to being published in the newspapers as aforesaid and as may be directed, by the Hon'ble the Chief Justice, shall also be published on the Notice Boards of the Offices of the Goa State Legal Services Authority inter-alia indicating the qualifications prescribed for the post and calling upon the applications alongwith copies of the required attested documents to be submitted on or before the prescribed date.

(3) The Candidate in his/her/their application shall declare as to whether he has been arrested anytime or whether there is any criminal prosecution pending against him or whether he is convicted by a Criminal Court or whether he has been held guilty or is facing disciplinary enquiry or terminated/compulsorily returned from any service in past.

7. Select List.— (1) A Select List of candidates shall be prepared for appointment to each post in accordance with these rules and notified on the Notice Board and the official website of the Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(2) The Select List shall consist of names of candidates equal to the number of vacancies notified as per sub-rule (1) of rule 6, arranged in order of merit. If considered necessary, a wait list of candidates, arranged in order of merit, may be prepared not exceeding twenty five percent of the total number of vacancies notified.

(3) The aforesaid list(s) so prepared shall ordinarily be valid for a period of one year from the date of its notification as above:

Provided that the Hon'ble The Chief Justice and Patron in Chief of Goa State Legal Service Authority may, in his discretion, direct the appointment from the above wait list(s) even after the expiry of the period of two years until a new list is prepared in accordance with the rules.

8. Probation.— (1) A person appointed to the service by direct recruitment or nomination shall be on probation for a period of two years or until an order declaring such person to have satisfactorily completed the period of probation is made by the Appointing Authority, whichever is later.

(2) The Services of a probationer are liable to be terminated without notice and without assigning any reason.

9. Nomination of Judge for supervision.— The Hon'ble The Chief Justice and the Hon'ble Executive Chairman of the Goa State Legal Services Authority may nominate the Member Secretary of the Goa State Legal Service Authority for supervising the process of selection of the candidates for being included in the select list of any of the above mentioned posts and may direct the Member Secretary for taking assistance of any of the Judicial Officers from the District Judiciary of Goa for completing the process of recruitment.

10. Recruitment Norms.— Appointment of the Officers and members of the staff on the Establishment of the Goa State Legal Services Authority may be made:—

i) By direct recruitment,

ii) By selection,

iii) By Transfer,

iv) By promotion,

v) By deputation, as the case may be

"Provided further that the maximum age limit for direct recruitment as specified in the Schedule shall be relaxable for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes in accordance with the orders issued by the Government of Goa from time to time in that regard".

(ii) The number of posts, mode of appointment, qualifications, classification of the post and level in the pay matrices attached thereto and other matters shall be as specified in the Schedule.

Written Examination shall be held for recruitment of all group "C" Posts. The examination may be conducted departmentally, wherever the department possesses the requisite expertise and capacity to conduct the examination.

(iii) Syllabus and Scheme of examination shall be designed by considering the nature of duties assigned to the posts and published in the notice inviting applications on the website of the Authority. The syllabus may encompass questions based on essential qualification, general knowledge, reasoning ability, quantitative aptitude, etc. commensurate with the degree/level of understanding required for the post.

(iv) The total marks of written examination shall be 100 marks and duration of examination shall be decided by the Authority Department according to the nature of examination i.e subjective or objective or combination of both.

(v) Physical endurance test shall be conducted for the posts which require physical standards in terms of recruitment rules and only the successful candidates shall be shortlisted for written examination. Such test shall be conducted prior to written examination.

(vi) Physical endurance test or skill/aptitude test being qualifying in nature shall not be considered for drawing merit list.

(vii) Skill test/aptitude test, wherever necessary, may be considered for screening eligible candidates to be called for written examination and only qualified candidates shall be called for written examination.

(viii) Selection of the Candidates shall be determined in accordance with the marks obtained by each candidate in the written examination as per merit. The Head of Department/Appointing Authority shall publish the entire result on the notice board of the Department, as well as on the Website of the Goa State Legal Services Authority.

(ix) If two or more candidates secure equal marks in the written examination then order of merit shall be as per their date of birth and if in case the date of birth is also same, then the candidate possessing higher educational qualifications will be placed higher in the merit list.

(x) There shall be no allocation of marks for educational qualifications and the selection of the candidates shall be done strictly as per the marks scored in written/online examination and as per procedure laid down in this Office Memorandum.

(xi) The Head of the Department/Appointing Authority shall based on the results declared on the website of this Authority, proceed to verify the documents of equal number of candidates as number of post advertised plus 10% wait list candidates. The verification process shall be conducted on the same date/s when the Department selection committee shall meet for finalizing the select list.

11. Role of Departmental Selection Committee (DSC).—

i. The Member Secretary shall ensure that, the Departmental Selection Committee is constituted in terms of standing instructions/guidelines issued from time to time. The Member Secretary shall furnish a copy of Notification in this regard, at the request of the members.

ii. In the event, the expert members form OBC/ST/SC/Ex-serviceman does not attend the selection committee meeting after being duly served at least three clear days in advance, the Chairman of the Departmental Selection Committee/Head of Department, if the Chairman is other than Head of Department, shall intimate the fact to the controlling Officer/Department or Institution for further action against such Officer, unless the officer justifies the non-attendance.

Further, absence of expert shall not invalidate the selection proceedings and the Departmental Selection Committee shall proceed with the selection process. The role of the expert members shall be limited to ensuring that the roster/reservation is verified by the Competent Authority and that the candidate possesses valid caste/discharge certificate issued by the Competent Authority.

iii. The Departmental Selection Committee shall check the copy of the advertisement published in local dailies and ascertain the number of posts advertised alongwith details of reservation of vacancies so advertised.

iv. The Departmental Selection Committee shall first proceed to shortlist candidates belonging to person with disability category and ex-servicemen based on merit. The candidates so shortlisted shall be adjusted against the category to which they belong i.e. unreserved, scheduled tribes, scheduled castes, and other backward classes. The vacancies in these categories shall be reduced to that extent. In case, persons under these categories are not available, the number of such advertised vacancies shall be deducted from the unreserved category. For instance, the posts advertised are say 10 viz. 05 UR, 02 ST, 01 SC and 02 OBC, out of which 01 post to be filled from person with disability category and 01 post under ex- servicemen category and if the candidate under person with disability category is unavailable, it shall be deducted form unreserved category i.e. 5-1= 4. i.e. the Departmental Selection Committee shall proceed to select only 04 candidates belonging to unreserved category.

v. The Departmental Selection Committee shall then proceed to select candidates of unreserved category as per the descending order of marks scored in written/online examination.

vi. In case of candidates belonging to reserved category, who by virtue of their merit in written examination are eligible for selection against unreserved category, they shall be adjusted against unreserved category, only if they have not availed age relaxation or any other concession/relaxation other than payment of fees.

vii. Once the Departmental Selection Committee finalizes the list of unreserved category candidates, it shall proceed to prepare selection list of reserved category candidates.

viii. The Department shall, once finalize selection list is prepared, arrange to verify the essential qualification of the candidates and ensure that the candidate is eligible vis-à-vis essential qualification/criteria for the post as per the recruitment rules.

ix. The Departmental Selection Committee shall, in addition to select list also prepare a separate wait list upto 10% of the vacancies based on merit of the candidates in their respective category.

12. Provided further that the candidate from the wait list may be considered, only if the candidate from the select list does not accept the offer of appointment.

(i) The process of selection comes to an end once the vacancies advertised are filled up. The wait list shall be used as a reservoir to fill the advertised existing/anticipated vacancies.

(ii) The wait list shall lapse on the declaration of the date of subsequent examination for the same category or after a period of one year from the date of preparation of such wait list, whichever is earlier.

(iii) The quorum:—

Non-attendance/non availability of any member of the Departmental Selection Committee other than Chairman shall not invalidate the proceeding of such committee provided minimum 2 members were present.

(iv) Final Selection List:- Once the Departmental Selection Committee prepares the final selection list and wait list, which shall be subject to verification of documents, the Head of Department/Appointing Authority shall publish the on notice board and on the website of the Goa State Legal Services Authority preferably on the same day, but not later than three days from the date of meeting of selection committee. In case the selection committee meeting was held on more than one day, then the period of three days shall be counted from the last day of such meeting.

(v) The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions (Department of Personnel and Training) vide letter No. 39020/09/2015/Estt.(B) dated 23rd October, 2015, has dispensed with the interview for all Group 'C' and 'D' (which are now reclassified as Group 'C' posts. Interview should be also discontinued for non-gazetted posts of Group 'B' category.

(vi) Specific and isolated Group 'B' non-gazetted posts for which any particular department considers interview absolutely essential, clearance of The Hon'ble Chief Justice would need to be obtained. It is clarified that since the skill test and physical test are different from interview such tests may continue.

11. Method of recruitment, age limit and other qualifications.— The method of recruitment to the said posts, age limit, qualifications and other matters connected therewith shall be as specified in the Schedule.

Provided that the Government may, in consultation with the Chief Justice and Patron in Chief, vary the number of posts specified in column (3) of the Schedule from time to time subject to exigencies of work.

12. Special Deputation.— The Hon'ble The Chief Justice may at his discretion appoint any person on the Establishment, on deputation from the District Judiciary in the State of Goa, any Government Department, Public Sector undertaking or Autonomous Body. Provided that the appointment from Government Department/Public Sector undertaking skill made only with the consent of the Government.

(2) In the case of employees who have retired upon superannuation on or after 1st day of January, 2014, till the commencement of these rules, their extension of age for all purposes including pay and allowances shall be protected for the purpose of pension and pensionary benefits.

14. Overriding power of the Hon'ble The Chief Justice and Patron in Chief of Goa State Legal Service Authority.— Notwithstanding anything contained than in accordance with these rules, the Hon'ble The Chief Justice and Patron in Chief shall have power to:

(a) appoint any person at any time otherwise than in accordance with these rules in a temporary vacancy and the appointment so made shall be as effective and valid as any other appointment made in accordance with these rules;

15. Residuary matters.— With regards to matters not specifically covered by or under these Rules, including the service conditions shall be governed by Law, Rules and Regulations or norms as applicable to the State Government employees, in general, in so far as these are not inconsistent with or repugnant to these Rules.

16. Powers to relax.— Where the Authority is of the opinion that it is necessary or expedient so to do, it may, by order, for reasons to be recorded in writing and with the approval of the Government, relax any of the provisions of these Rules with respect to any class or category of persons.

17. Savings.— Nothing in these Rules shall affect reservation, relaxation of age limit and other concessions required to be provided for Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Ex- Serviceman and other special categories of persons in accordance with the orders issued by the Government from time to time in that regard.

By order and in the name of the Hon'ble The Chief Justice and Patron-in-Chief of Goa State Legal Services Authority.

Member Secretary, GSLSA

Porvorim.

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