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SANJAY KAROL, VIPUL M. ANCHOLI
Laxmikant Sharma – Appellant
Versus
State Of Madhya Pradesh – Respondent
In another instance of challenging termination from contractual employment on grounds of allegedly deficient educational qualifications, the court ruled that the employer's demand for a precise degree title (postgraduate in Statistics) was unreasonable when the employee's qualification encompassed core statistical modules as major components, emphasizing equivalence in content over literal labeling. (!) (!) (!)
The dismissal was quashed for violating natural justice, as no opportunity for personal hearing was afforded prior to the decision, and post-termination university verifications validating the qualification's adequacy were summarily ignored. (!) (!)
Departmental expert assessment corroborated the employee's competence through syllabus equivalence and proven performance, rendering the employer's contrary stance perverse and reviewable. (!) (!)
Discriminatory treatment by terminating this employee alone, while sparing similarly qualified peers with comparable degree structures, breached Article 14's equality mandate, with no valid distinction upheld. (!) (!)
State contractual appointments, though temporary, demand non-arbitrary action; the court directed reinstatement with back wages and benefits, holding the termination vitiated by irrationality. (!) (!) (!)
JUDGMENT :
VIPUL M. PANCHOLI, J.
1. Leave granted.
2. This appeal challenges the judgment dated 20.09.2024 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Writ Appeal No. 1536 of 2024. Vide the impugned judgment, the Division Bench affirmed the order dated 29.01.2024 of the Single Bench in W.P.(C) No. 4933 of 2021, whereby the appellant’s challenge to the termination of his contractual services, as Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant, Water Support Organization (W.S.O.), State Water Mission (S.W.M.), Public Health & Engineering Department (P.H.E.D.), Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, was dismissed.
FACTUAL MATRIX
3. The factual matrix of the present case as per the appellant is that the appellant had applied pursuant to an advertisement issued by the W.S.O., S.W.M., P.H.E.D. The advertisement prescribed the minimum qualification as: “Postgraduate degree in Statistics from a Government recognised University with at least 60% marks or equivalent grade”.
4. The appellant holds an M.Com. (Commerce) degree from Chhatrasal Government Postgraduate College, Panna, Madhya Pradesh (affiliated to Dr. Harisingh Gour University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh) completed in 1999. As par
The court affirmed an employee's substantive qualifications over rigid formal requirements for educational degrees in determining employment eligibility.
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There is no equivalent Rule akin to Rule 10(a)(ii). A perusal of the said Rule 10(a)(ii) clearly presupposes and provides that the acquisition of a higher qualification would presuppose the acquisiti....
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