ORDER

Rastogi, J. - Leave granted.

2. The appellant has approached this Court with a grievance that neither the learned Single Judge nor the Division Bench of the High Court of Orissa under the impugned orders has taken pains to examine as to whether the legitimate right of fair consideration in seeking appointment on the post of Shikshya Sahayak pursuant to his participation in the selection process held in reference to advertisement dated 14.10.2006 is in any manner has been impaired. In the circumstances, when the candidates lower to him in the order of merit were appointed on the post of Shikshya Sahayak in April/November, 2007 and after the petition filed by the appellant remained pending for sufficient long time, the learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petition under order dated 24.06.2019 on the premise that during pendency of the writ petition the Scheme has been abolished and consequent thereto the writ petition has become infructuous by efflux of time.

3. The Division Bench of the High Court has also not bothered to look into the grievance of the appellant and dismissed the LPA by an order dated 14.10.2019 on the premise that the appellant has reached the age of 51 years when the appeal has come up for hearing and at this stage no mandamus can be issued to the Government to appoint the appellant.

4. It has always been said that delay denies justice, but if there was no delay on the part of the litigant in approaching the Court to ventilate his/her grievance, the litigant at least cannot be non-suited for the laches which are not attributable to him/her to deny justice for the aforesaid reasons.

5. The advertisement dated 14.10.2006 came to be published in local newspaper "The Samaj", whereby the DI of Schools, Jaleswar, P.O. Jaleswar, District Balasore, Orissa, inviting applications for appointment to the post of "Shikshya Sahayak" from such of the applicants who are holding the qualification of B.Ed and C.T. The appellant herein claiming himself to be eligible submitted application and the select list of the candidates who had participated in the selection process was to be prepared on the basis of academic qualifications and priority was to be given to such of the candidates who had a working experience to their credit and there shall be no interview. The procedure for holding selection has been indicated in paras 8, 10 and 11 of the advertisement, which are reproduced hereunder :

"8. The candidates who are working in the different planning (DPEP, EFA, NFE) of the government organisation in the prevailing Public Primary Education System of the State and having required educational qualifications the candidate will be given priority and their working experience will be taken into consideration and they will be appointed as Shikshya Sahayak/Sahayaka.

(a) Those who have worked with DPEP and having CT, B.Ed qualifications and worked as para teachers without any break, five marks per year will be given for their experience, maximum for three years (5X3 marks =15 marks will be given)

(b) Similarly those who have worked with EFA and having CT, B.Ed qualifications and worked as para teachers without any break, five marks per year will be given for their experience, maximum for three years (5X3= 15 marks will be given).

(c) Those who have worked with NFI/NFS and having CT, B.Ed qualifications and those who had worked till 31.03.2001 for their experience, they will be given 4 marks per year maximum for five years (4X5 marks = 20 marks will be given).

10. The selected candidates will be selected as per marks obtained in their Matriculation and C.T examination or Graduation and B.Ed examination. That there shall no interview conducted for this.

11. From all the posts 70% shall be filled by the candidates of matriculation/ +2/C.T./and rest 30% by the B.Ed candidates."

6. The merit list of the candidates who had participated in the process of selection came to be prepared by the respondents in terms of the procedure notified in the adve