Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal has directed the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) to set up a committee for ensuring a transparent hiring process and stopped all recruitments in the department and its associated offices until the system is standardised.

Post this order, all candidates applying for job in DEITY and organisations under it will have to disclose whether their relatives are working in DeitY or its subordinate office.

"Some complaints have come regarding favouritism in Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY). Hence, Minister (Sibal) has directed the department to set-up a committee for transparent hiring in the department," a senior official of Ministry of Communications and Information Technology told PTI.

As per the order issued on Tuesday, the committee will be set-up under chairmanship of Additional Secretary DEITY to streamline and standardise the recruitment process in the department.

Sibal has also directed DeitY Secretary J Satyanarayana to select an external agency through tendering process for conducting recruitment process.

The order said that DeitY committee should look into standardisation of examination process at par with organisations like UPSC and industry practices.

DeitY has over 20 autonomous organisations under it including National Informatics Centre, Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification, C-DAC and Software Technology parks of India.

Though details of employees due for hiring by DeitY and related organisations could not be immediately ascertained.

The official said the head office of DeitY with STQC and NIC taken together has around 5,900 employees.