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JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J. - Leave granted.

2. Appellant is before us aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 10.4.2006 passed by a Division bench of the High Court of Orissa at Cuttack dismissing an appeal against the judgment and order dated 30.3.2005 passed by a learned single judge of the said Court in Writ Petition (C) No. 1952 of 2003 allowing the writ application filed by respondent No. 5 herein.

3. The State of Orissa in terms of the Integrated Child Development Scheme of the Central Government issued an advertisement for appointment of Anganwadi Workers. A check list laying down guidelines for selection of Anganwadi Workers was also issued. The Constitution of the Committee as also the marks to be allotted on different items were specified therein.

4. A Circular Letter dated 7.10.1998 was furthermore issued by the W.E.C.D. Department of Government of Orissa for selection of Anganwadi Workers laying down minimum educational qualifications and as also other criteria therefor; the relevant clause whereof reads as under:

"8. Candidates who have been included in the panel mentioned above, will be called for an interview and marks will be awarded to them in the following manner:

(a) Percentage of marks obtained in that Matriculation examination or percentage of marks obtained in the written test for non-matriculates as may be relevant.

(b) 3 marks if the candidate is intermediate or equivalent or has higher qualification.

(c) 5 marks if the candidate belongs to S.C. and S.T. category.

(d) 3 marks if she is married and additional 3 marks if she is a widow or a divorcee (i.e. where marriage has been dissolved by a court degree) provided she resides in that village.

(e) Marks to be awarded for experience out of a maximum of 5. The experience relevant for this purpose will be experiences in any area of the duties of Anganwadi worker acquired in Government employment or in employment in a programme under a registered voluntary organization funded by the State/Central Govt. for this purpose.

(f) Marks obtained in the interview which will be out of a maximum of 10 marks.

Note:- Marks awarded to candidate in accordance with clause (a) to (e) shall be notified prior to holding of interview."

5. Rule 10 provides for composition of Selection Committee. Different Selection Committees were constituted for rural and urban areas separately.

6. Appellant filed an application for recruitment as an Anganwadi Worker, the last date wherefor was 20.9.2000. Admittedly, at that time, she was not married. She was married in 2001. She secured 43% in HSC Examination + 3 marks in Intermediate and 9 marks in viva voce, totaling 55 marks. However, she was awarded 3 more marks on the ground that she got married although as noticed hereinbefore she on the last specified date for filing of the application was not married.

7. Respondent No. 5 also filed an application for her recruitment as Anganwadi Worker. She secured 49.8% marks in HSC examination, + 3 marks in Intermediate, + 3 marks for marriage, + 2 marks for viva-voce examination, thus, totaling 57.8% marks.

8. Contending that the Selection Committee had no jurisdiction to award 3 marks to appellant, respondent filed a writ petition before the High Court of Orissa. The said writ petition was allowed by a learned single judge of the said Court by a judgment and order dated 30.3.2005, opining:

"A candidate who acquired the prescribed qualifications or extra qualification subsequent to such prescribed date cannot be considered at all. Admittedly on the date of publication of the Notification and the date fixed for submission of application the petitioner was not married though she got married subsequently. The authorities awarded three marks in her favour. In view of the ratio of the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Ashok Kumar Sharma (supra), the petitioner is not entitled to the said three marks and only the eligibility and the qualifications possessed by the opposite party no