The main legal point established in the judgment is that OBC candidates with a certificate issued from outside Delhi will be considered for the unreserved category only, if eligible otherwise.

JUDGMENT :

V. Kameswar Rao, J.

The challenge in this petition is to an order dated March 29, 2023 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (‘Tribunal’, for short) in OA 2053/2017, whereby the Tribunal has dismissed the petition filed by the petitioner herein.

2. The grievance of the petitioner before the Tribunal was that her candidature to the post of TGT (Domestic Science) under the category ‘OBC’ was cancelled on the ground that OBC certificate produced by her was issued on the basis of OBC certificate issued in favour of her father in the State of Haryana (being a resident of the said State), i.e., the OBC certificate issued to her is from outside Delhi.

3. The facts noted from the petition are, the petitioner (prior to her marriage) belong to OBC category as her caste is “Chippy (Darzi)”, which is a notified OBC in both the State of Haryana and Delhi. It is her case that her husband also belongs to OBC category.

4. Various posts including the post of TGT (Domestic Science) were advertised in the year 2010. The petitioner applied for the said post under the OBC category. At the time of submission of her application form, she submitted the OBC certificate issued by the competent authority of the State of Haryana. She appeared in the written examination and secured 75.25 marks i.e. last cut-off marks under the OBC category. She in the year 2015 applied for the OBC certificate in the State of NCT of Delhi on the basis of OBC certificate issued by State of Haryana. The competent authority in Delhi had on March 24, 2015 issued OBC certificate on the basis of OBC certificate issued in favour of her father in Haryana. The OBC certificate was issued by the authority prior to the verification of the documents for the post of TGT (Domestic Science), i.e., on June 24, 2016. The respondents issued a rejection notice dated May 11, 2017 stating that the OBC Certificate issued in favour of the petitioner is from outside Delhi.

5. The case of the petitioner before the Tribunal was, it is a settled law that subsequent OBC certificate issued in Delhi is a mere affirmation of the fact already in existence that the petitioner belong to OBC category. In any case, the case of the respondents was that as per the policy of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi only two types of certificates are considered as valid for grant of benefit of reservation as OBC in appointments under the Govt. of NCT of Delhi (i) OBC certificate (Delhi) issued by the Revenue Department of Govt. of NCT of Delhi on the basis of any old certificate issued to any member of individual's family from Govt. of NCT of Delhi, (ii) OBC certificate issued by competent authority outside Delhi to a person belonging to a community duly notified as OBC by Govt. of NCT of Delhi. This certificate should have mandatorily been issued on the basis of OBC certificate issued by Govt. of NCT of Delhi to any family member before September 8, 1993. The Tribunal has in paragraphs 6 to 12 stated as under:

“6. In the present case, it is not disputed that at the time of submission of the application by the applicant, she had submitted “Backward Class Certificate”, which was issued by Tehsildar, Rohtak, Haryana dated 26.06.2003 declaring that she was resident of Village Rohtak, Tehsil Rohtak, District Rohtak, Haryana State.

7. It is not in dispute that the applicant had consciously filed the application form. The applicants after going through the detailed advertisement for Section ‘B’ Scheme of Examination; for Section ‘C’ General instructions & procedure for submission of application form and for Section ‘D’ Prescribed Application form.

8. There is no dispute regarding stipulation (s) in the Advertisement, which have not been refuted nor challenged e till date by the applicant is so far issue of her claim to OBC is concerned. Nor there is challenge to respondent's notice dated 24.06.2016 in present OA.

9.The citations relied by the learned counsel for the applicant does help and support to facts narrated and set u