IMPORTANT POINT
Appointment on posts of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under Civil Judge Cadre – Candidates who consciously took part in process of selection cannot be permitted to question advertisement or methodology adopted by respondents for making selection.

JUDGMENT :

BELA M. TRIVEDI, J.

1. Both the appeals having common question of law and facts were heard together and are being decided by this common judgment.

2. The facts in nutshell are that the respondent High Court had issued an advertisement for the direct recruitment of 120 posts of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre. The appellant-Ms. Rekha Sharma, having 40% permanent disability in relation to her eyes, had applied for the said post. The appellant-Ratan Lal having locomotor disability i.e. 55% permanent physical impairment in relation to his right upper limb, had also applied for the said post. Both having appeared in the Preliminary Examination were declared “not successful.” As per the result declared on 11.01.2022, the cut off marks in respect of every category mentioned in the advertisement were shown except the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities.

3. Being aggrieved by the said result, the appellant-Ratan Lal (in C.A. No. 5052/2023) had preferred D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1436 of 2022, which came to be dismissed by the High Court vide the judgment and order dated 02.03.2022. The appellant-Rekha Sharma (in C.A. No. 5051/2023) had also filed D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1868 of 2022 which came to be dismissed by the High Court vide the order dated 06.04.2022 relying upon the judgment dated 02.03.2022 passed in Writ Petition No. 1436 of 2022.

4. The bone of contention raised by the learned counsels appearing for both the appellants in the instant appeals is that the respondents while declaring the result of Preliminary Examination showing the cut off marks for each of the categories mentioned in the advertisement in question, had not shown the cut off marks for the category of Persons with benchmark disabilities. According to them, the said action of the respondents was discriminatory and violative of their Fundamental Rights enshrined in Article 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India, and also violative of the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 read with Rajasthan Rights of Persons with Disabilities Rules, 2018.

5. According to the learned Senior Counsel Ms. Pinky Anand appearing for the respondents, the appellant-Rekha Sharma having obtained 57 marks in the EWS category for which the cut off marks were 69 marks, and the appellant-Ratan Lal having secured 59 marks in the OBC-NCL category for which the cut off marks were 67 marks, were found to be not qualified for appearing in the Main Examination. She further submitted that the entire selection process was over on 30.08.2022 and the appointments of successful candidates have already been made by the respondents on 09.03.2023. The fresh advertisement for the vacancies of 2022-2024 was issued on 09.04.2024 and the result of the Preliminary Examination in respect of the said advertisement has also been declared on 15.07.2024.

6. Before dealing with the rival contentions raised by the learned counsels for the parties, let us refer to the relevant paragraphs of the advertisement dated 22.07.2021 in question:

“1. The Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur under the Rajasthan Judicial Service Rules, 2010 (As amended) is inviting online application in the prescribed online format for direct recruitment on 120 vacant posts (89 posts of 2020 and 31 posts of 2021) of Civil Judge and Judicial Magistrate under the Civil Judge Cadre on probation at the pay scale of 27700-770-33090-920-40450-1080- 44770.

2-3..............

4. Number of Vacant Posts and Reservations: