The court emphasized the importance of correctly evaluating the teaching experience of the petitioners and upheld the principle that recruitment to public services should be held strictly in accordance with the terms of advertisement and recruitment rules.

JUDGMENT

Anoop Kumar Mendiratta, J. The challenge in this writ petition is to an order dated January 23, 2023 passed in O.A. No.102/2023 by the Central Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the `Tribunal') whereby the O.A. preferred on behalf of the petitioners for considering them for appointment to the post of Principal under the Directorate of Education in terms of Advertisement No.07/2021 and for quashing of rejection notice dated November 29, 2022, was dismissed on the ground that they fall short of teaching experience by 14 and 37 days respectively.

2. In brief, petitioner No. 1 Sonu Lal Gupta served the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi as TGT (Maths) from December 31, 2010 to August 26, 2019 and as PGT since August 27, 2019. Thereafter, petitioner No.1 proceeded on deputation with State Council of Educational Research Training (SCERT in short) since December 17, 2020. Similarly petitioner No. 2 (Geeta) served the Directorate of Education as PGT (English) since January 17, 2011 and proceeded on deputation with SCERT since December 11, 2020.

3. Petitioners applied in pursuance to Advertisement No. 07/2021 issued by Union Public Service Commissioner (UPSC) for 363 vacancies for the post of Principal in the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi. The advertisement prescribed Educational Qualification of Master's/Bachelor's degree from a recognised University/Institute and ten years' experience of teaching as Vice Principal/PGT/TGT in a High School/Higher Secondary School/Senior Secondary School/Intermediate College and also reflected desirable qualifications. The UPSC also had discretion to relax the qualifications for reasons to be recorded in writing, in case the candidates were otherwise well qualified.

4. The details of the essential qualifications and other terms and conditions as advertised may be beneficially reproduced:

"ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS:

(A)EDUCATIONAL: i) Master's Degree from a recognized University/Institute; ii) Bachelor of Education from a recognized university/institute; and

(B) EXPERIENCE: Ten years' experience of teaching (Vice Principal/Post Graduate Teacher/Trained Graduate Teacher) in a recognized High School/Higher Secondary School/Senior Secondary School/Intermediate College.

DESIRABLE: i) Holding Doctorate Degree from a Recognized University/Institute. ii) Experience of Administrative charge of a Recognized High School/Higher Secondary School/Intermediate College.

NOTE: I: Qualifications are relaxable at the discretion of the Union Public Service Commission, for reasons to be recorded in writing, in the case of candidates otherwise well qualified.

NOTE:II: The qualification(s) regarding experience is/are relaxable at the discretion of the Union Public Service Commission, for reasons to be recorded in writing in the case of candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes, if at any stage of selection the Union Public Service Commission, is of the opinion that sufficient number of candidates from these communities possessing the requisite experience are not likely to be available to fill up the vacancies reserved for them.

DUTIES: Administrative, Academic and Financial jobs in school. To ensure quality education in school and ensure safety, security, punctuality, regularity & proper discipline among the students and the staff. To ensure that the Financial Rules are followed for all financial transactions.

HQ: Directorate of Education, GNCT of Delhi, Old Secretariat, Delhi-54."

"9. OTHER INFORMATION/INSTRUCTIONS:

a) xx xx xx

b) xx xx xx

c) In respect of equivalent clause in Essential Qualifications, if a candidate is claiming a particular qualification as equivalent qualification as per the requirement of advertisement, then the candidate is required to produce order/letter in this regard, indicating the Authority (with number and date) under which it has been so treated otherwise the Online Recruitment Application is liable to be rejected