IMPORTANT POINT
[The court established that adherence to the eligibility criteria and verification process outlined in the Government Resolution is essential for appointments under the sports quota.]

JUDGMENT/ORDER

VRUSHALI V.JOSHI, J. - Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with consent of the parties.

2. The petitioner is challenging the refusal of the respondents 2 and 3 to issue the appointment order to the petitioner for the post of Junior Engineer Group-D from the sports quota.

3. The respondent 2 published an advertisement for direct appointment for the post of Assistant Engineer Group-C and Junior Engineer Group-D at their official website on 17/10/2016, wherein 5% reservation was provided under sport quota. As per Government Resolution dtd. 30/4/2005, for the post of Junior Engineer, a person who individually or with team has secured 1st, 2nd and 3rd position or won gold, silver or bronze medal in State, National and International competition is eligible to apply and the selection is subject to receiving validity report of the certificates of the candidate from respondent 4. The petitioner has educational qualification of Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and has also played various games such as Basketball, Tug of War and Sepak-Takaraw on District and State Level Competition in which the petitioner has secured 2nd position in Maharashtra State Sepak-Takaraw Championship 2013-14 and also the winner of Inter Zonal Sports Meet 2008-2009 in Basket Ball. The name of the petitioner was published in select list and his position was at Serial No.20 in Select List (Open) from sport quota. The respondent 2 issued letter on 2/1/2018 to the respondent 5 to submit validity report regarding sport certificate of the 3 selected candidates for the post of Assistant Engineer Group -C and 1 candidate Junior Engineer Group-D. Accordingly, the respondent 5 submitted validity report regarding sport certificate of the petitioner to the respondent 2 on 9/10/2018 and specifically submitted that petitioner's validity certificate was issued on 31/7/2018 and therefore, there is no objection to appoint petitioner to the post of Junior Engineer.

4. The petitioner contends that although selected for the post of Junior Engineer Group- D from sport quota, however, the respondent 2 did not issue appointment order to the petitioner, hence the petitioner, submitted a representation. On 10/4/2019, respondent 3 replied to the representation of petitioner stating that the respondent 3 has not received validity report from respondent 5 and therefore, appointment order for the post of Junior Engineer Group-D from the sport quota is not issued.

5. The respondents 2 and 3 have filed their reply stating that as per the advertisement, the posts were for the parallel reservation [XXXXXXXX] under point 6 and it has been categorically mentioned that Sport Certificate submitted by the candidate shall be invariably verified by the concerned Director, Sports and Youth Services and only after verification of such certificate the candidate will get the appointment letter.

6. The petitioner in his application claimed that he has obtained 1st rank/Gold Medal in the sports participated by him at the State Level. As per the documents produced thereto at the time of filing of application, the petitioner has mentioned the names of the sports as Basketball and Tug-of-War. On verification, it appears that the petitioner has participated in Inter Zonal Sports Meet 2008-2009 and the Tug-of-War certificate submitted by him was also for Inter District Level Sports and hence the same does not meet the criteria of Meritorious Sports candidate as per the advertisement.

7. The petitioner applied for the post of Junior Engineer from Mechanical Stream under the sport quota and therefore the name of the petitioner was mentioned in the provisional select list, which was subject to the verification of documents. The petitioner was called for documents verification, and the petitioner has submitted the documents of his qualification, including the certificates of 'Basketball' and 'Tug-of-War" sports. The above certificates of sports were subjected to verification. After verificat