Important point
Rajasthan Govt.’s circular dated 10-6-1998 providing for (10+5) bonus marks for residents of the concerned district and the rural areas within the district in the selections held and the consequential appointments made to the posts of primary school teachers by the Zila Parishads of various districts in the State of Rajasthan are violative of Articles 16 read with 14 of the Constitution of India.

Headnote:(i) Constitution of India—Articles 14 and 16—Selections held and consequential appointments made to the posts of primary schools teachers by the Zila Parishads of various Districts in the State of Rajasthan—Government circular dated 10.6.1998 providing for bonus marks (10+5) for residents of concerned districts and the rural areas within the districts respectively—Whether constitutionally valid tested on the touch stone of Article 16 read with 14 of the Constitution? (No)—Case law discussed.
       Held : The above discussion leads us to the conclusion that the award of bonus marks to the residents of the district and the residents of the rural areas of the district amounts to impermissible discrimination. There is no rational basis for such preferential treatment on the material available before us. The ostensible reasons put forward to distinguish the citizens residing in the State are either non-existent or irrelevant and they have no nexus with the object sought to be achieved, namely, spread of education at primary level. The offending part of Circular has the effect of diluting merit, without in any way promoting the objective. The impugned circular dated 10.6.1998 in so far as the award of bonus marks is concerned, has been rightly declared to be illegal and unconstitutional by the High Court. (Para 37)
       Held further : One more serious infirmity in the impugned circular is that it does not spell out any criteria or indicia for determining whether the applicant is a resident of rural area. Everything is left bald with the potential of giving rise to varying interpretations thereby defeating the apparent objective of the rule. On matters such as duration of residence, place of schooling etc., there are bound to be controversies. The authorities, who are competent to issue residential certificates, are left to apply the criteria according to their thinking, which can by no means be uniform. The decision in the State of Maharashtra vs. Raj Kumar (AIR 1982 SC 1301) is illustrative of the problem created by vague or irrelevant criteria. In that case a rule was made by the State of Maharashtra that a candidate will be considered a rural candidate if he had passed SSC Examination held from a village or a town having only C type municipality. The object of the rule, as noticed by this Court, was to appoint candidates having full knowledge of rural life so that they would be more suitable for working as officers in rural areas. The rule was struck down on the ground that there was no nexus between classification made and the object sought to be achieved because "as the rule stands, any person who may not have lived in a village at all can appear for SSC Examination from a village and yet become eligible for selection". The rule was held to be violative of Article 14 and 16. When no guidance at all is discernible from the impugned circular as to the identification of the residence of the applicants especially having regard to the indefinite nature of the concept of residence, the provision giving the benefit of bonus marks to the rural residents will fall foul of Art. 14. (Para 38)
       (ii) Rajasthan Panchayat Raj Rules, 1966—Proviso to Rule 273—Government circular dated 10.6.1998 providing for bonus marks, 10 marks for residents of concerned districts and 5 marks for rural areas within the district—Challenged under Article 226 as discriminatory—Rival contentions on relief to be given—Appeal to Supreme Court—Apex Court holding circular constitutionally invalid—But due to prospective overruling certain directions are given and certain observations made.
       Held : Having due regard to the rival contentions adverted to above and keeping in view the factual scenario and the need to balance the competing claims in the light of acceptance of prospective overruling in principle, we consider it just and proper to confine the relief only to the petitioners who moved the High Court and to make appointments made on or after 18.11.1999 in any of the districts subject to the claims of the petitioners. Accordingly, we direct:
        1. The claims of the writ petitioners should be considered afresh in the light of this judgment vis a vis the candidates appointed on or after 18.11.99 or those in the select list who are yet to be appointed. On such consideration, if those writ petitioners are found to have superior merit in case the bonus marks of 10 and/or 5 are excluded, they should be offered appointments, if necessary, by displacing the candidates appointed on or after 18.11.1999.
        2. The appointments made upto 17.11.1999 need not be reopened and re-considered in the light of the law laid down in this judgment.
        3. Writ Petition No. 542/2000 filed in this Court under Article 32 is hereby dismissed as it was filed nearly one year after the judgment of the High Court and no explanation has been tendered for not approaching the High Court under Article 226 at an earlier point of time.
       Before parting, we must say that we have moulded the relief as above on a consideration of special facts and circumstances of this case acting within the frame-work of powers vested in this Court under Article 142 of the Constitution. In so far as the relief has been granted or modified in the manner aforesaid, this judgment may not be treated as a binding precedent in any case that may arise in future. Another parting observation. While we realize the need to generate better employment opportunities to the people of rural backward areas and an affirmative action in this regard is not ruled out, any such action should be within the framework of constitutional provisions relating to equality. Equalising unequals by taking note of their handicaps and limitations is not impermissible under the Constitution provided that it seeks to achieve the goal of promoting overall equality. However, measures taken by the State on considerations of localism are not sanctioned by the constitutional mandate of equality. As indicated in the judgment, any attempt at giving weightage to the rural candidates should be backed up by scientific study and considerations germane to constitutional guarantee of equality. The appeals arising out of the SLPs are disposed of accordingly. The impugned judgments of the High Court stand modified to that extent. The writ petition mentioned above is dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs. (Paras 49 to 52)

Judgment

P. Venkatarama Reddi, J.—Leave to appeal granted. Consequently, the appeals are taken on file and being disposed of by this common Judgment.

2. The selections held and the consequential appointments made to the posts of primary school teachers by the Zila Parishads of various districts in the State of Rajasthan during the year 1998-1999 have given rise to these appeals. The full Bench judgment of Rajasthan High Court dated 18.11.1999 in Kailash Chand Sharma (Petitioner in first of the appeals corresponding to SLP (C) No. 1824/2000) Vs. State of Rajasthan and connected Writ Petitions are under challenge in these appeals apart from the Division Bench Judgment in State of Rajasthan Vs. Naval Kishore Sharma. The full Bench followed its earlier judgment in Deepak Kumar Suthar Vs. State of Rajasthan (W.P. (C) No. 1917/1995) and disposed of the Writ Petitions on the same terms as in the previous full Bench reference case. At the outset, it may be stated that the judgment of the full Bench rendered on October 21, 1999 in Deepak Kumar s case (reported in 1999(2), RLR 692) was in relation to the selection of teachers Grade II and Grade III which was pursuant to the advertisement issued by the Director, Primary and Secondary Education during the year 1995. The said posts of teachers Grade II and Grade III are borne in State cadre under the administrative control of Education Department of the State Government. The second full Bench judgment, as already noted, was in the context of selections to the posts of teachers districtwise coming within the fold of respective Zila Parishads. In the impugned judgment the full Bench, however, did not see any impediment in applying the ratio of the previous judgment. The full Bench observed that "merely because the employment relates to the Panchayats, that does not make any difference in the light of the law laid down in the full Bench judgment aforementioned". What was called in question by the unsuccessful candidates. Who filed their applications and appeared before the o. 1 Selection Boards was the award of bonus marks to the applicants belonging to the District and the rural areas of the district concerned. The first full Bench (in the case of Deepak Kumar Vs. State) held that award of such bonus marks was unconstitutional and the relevant clause in the circular providing for bonus marks was void. The learned Judges observed that ‘‘this kind of weightage would give a complete go-bye to the merit of the candidates and would seriously affect the efficiency of administration/teaching". The full Bench answered the reference holding that "any kind of weightage/advantage in public employment in any State service is not permissible on the ground of place of birth or residence or on the ground of being a resident of urban area or rural area....’’. Having so declared the law, the full Bench gave the following directions in the concluding para of the judgment :

"Instead of sending the matter to the appropriate bench, we think it proper to dispose of this petition with a direction that no relief can be granted to the petitioners as they could not succeed to get the place in the merit list even by getting 10 bonus marks being residents of urban area, for which they are certainly not entitled. More so, the petitioners have not impleaded any person from the select list, not even the last selected candidate. Thus, no relief can be granted to them inspite of the fact that the appointments made in conformity of the impugned Circular have not been in consonance with law. However, we clarify that any appointment made earlier shall not be affected by this judgment and it would have prospective application."

3. It is this decision that was followed by the full Bench in the impugned judgment and the batch of Writ Petitions were disposed of accordingly. Against this judgment SLPs were filed by the original writ petitioners (six in number) as well as the State Government and the Zila Parishad.

4. After the full

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2002 Supreme(SC) 731

Cases Referred (10)