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2024 Supreme(Del) 777
IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
C. HARI SHANKAR, GIRISH KATHPALIA, JJ.
Akhil Pahuja And Ors - Appellants
Versus
Union Of India And Ors - Respondents
W.P.(C) 6366 of 2021
Decided on : 28-11-2024
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant : Mr. MK Bhardwaj, Ms. Priyanka M Bhardwaj, Ms. Maria Mugesh Kannan and Mr. Himanshu Bhardwaj, Advs.
For the Respondent: Ms. Shagun Chugh, Ms. Meera Chugh and Mr. Utsav Malhotra, Advs.
IMPORTANT POINT
The court ruled that the Railways must maintain a standby list for Assistant Station Master positions as mandated by the Centralized Employment Notice, rejecting the rationale for its exclusion.
Headnote:
(A) Centralized Employment Notice No. 3/2015 - Maintenance of standby list for Assistant Station Master - Petitioners not shortlisted for the post challenged the non-maintenance of standby list - Tribunal upheld Railways' decision based on policy change due to grade pay upgrade - Court found the decision to not maintain standby list unjustifiable and contrary to the CEN provisions. (Paras 20-26)
(B) Right to standby list - No inherent right to a standby list unless explicitly provided in the rules - Court emphasized adherence to the terms of the CEN and the necessity of maintaining a standby list for posts other than specified exceptions. (Paras 20.1-20.3)
Facts of the case:
Petitioners participated in the selection process for ASM but were not shortlisted; they challenged the Railways' decision not to maintain a standby list, citing previous practices and provisions in the CEN.
Findings of Court:
The Court quashed the Tribunal's decision, directing the Railways to maintain a standby list for ASM candidates based on merit.
Issues: Whether the Railways' decision to not maintain a standby list for ASM was lawful and justified under the CEN provisions.
Ratio Decidendi: The Court ruled that the Railways were required to maintain a standby list for ASM as per the CEN, and the rationale for its exclusion was flawed and unjustifiable.
Result: Writ petition allowed, directing the maintenance of a standby list for ASM candidates.
JUDGMENT :
C. HARI SHANKAR, J.
1. The petitioners were aspirants to the post of Assistant Station Master[“ASM”, hereinafter], which falls within the Non-Technical Popular Category[“NTPC”, hereinafter] of posts in the Railways.
2. Centralized Employment Notice[“CEN”, hereinafter] No. 3/2015 was issued by the Railways on 26 December 2015 to fill up vacancies in the NTPC. The petitioners also participated in the selection. They qualified the written examination and were subsequently subjected to psycho and typing test. Thereafter, in August 2017, a list of short-listed candidates for documents verification was released. The names of the petitioners did not find place in the said list. No waiting list or standby list was issued for the post of ASM.
3. On 27 October 2017, the Railways issued a notice clarifying the reason for not maintaining a standby list for the ASM. The notice deserves to be reproduced in full, thus:
“Notice for Candidates Shortlisted for DV for CEN 03/2015
Some candidates have approached RRBs seeking clarification regarding maintenance of standby list for the post of Assistant Station Master (ASM) or otherwise.
It is clarified that the post of ASM has now been upgraded and re-designated as Station Master as per recommendations of 7th Pay Commission. Accordingly the Grade Pay (GP) for the post stands revised from Rs 2800/- to 4200/-. Para 1.07.02 of CEN 03/2015 specified that there will not be any standby list for the posts i.e. Commercial Apprentice and Traffic Apprentice (having GP of Rs 4200/). With up-gradation of GP for the post of ASM to Rs 4200/- subsequent to the issue of the CEN, the principle of not keeping the standby list for posts having GP of Rs 4200/- stands extended to the post of ASM also. Keeping this in view the candidates were also afforded opportunity to exercise options afresh before declaration of the result of Second Stage CBT itself.
Candidates specific attention is invited to the Para 8.10 of the CEN and Note 1 of the Result for DV published in August 2017 wherein it has been mentioned that calling of around 50% extra candidates over and above the number of modified vacancies for document verification (DV) is primarily to make good any likely shortfall arising due to various reasons during formation of panel. With call of around 50% extra candidates over and above the number of modified vacancies for DV for all the notified posts this aspect has been taken care of. This has ensured that the interest of meritorious candidates is strictly safeguarded while forming the panel.
Para 1.07.02 of CEN clearly specifies that RRBs reserve right to utilize the standby list, if required. Whether the standby list will get operated or not depends on several factors including materialization of candidates as well as review of the requirement of the manpower from time to time. There have been several instances in the past wherein the standby lists have not been operated at all.
In the case of multi-post examination having multiple grades as NTPC (Graduate) Exam, a common standby list can be prepared, after sending the main panel, only of categories which have lower grade pay. The reason is that the candidates of standby list would be lower in merit than many candidates in the main panel who are empanelled for lower than 4200 GP posts. Hence, it will be a grave injustice to the candidates who though having a higher merit join on posts of Grade Pay Rs.2800/- or Rs.2000/- and later on candidates further lower in merit from standby list are empanelled for posts of grade pay Rs.4200/-. Moreover, standby candidates have no claim to get empanelled as a matter of right.
Further Para 1.07.03 of CEN specifies that once a candidate has been allotted a category the same will not be reviewed/revised/re-allotted under any circumstances. Thus no sliding is permitted across categories after publication of panel. In view of this, once the panel has been published allotting categories to the candidates, subsequent empanelment of ca
