Point of Law: Selection process of staff Nurse - Reserved category - Petitioner is to be treated as candidate of general category as a necessary corollary, requirement of caste certificate of petitioner being candidate of reserved category from an appropriate Government, which is condition prescribed in advertisement, such requirement will fall into insignificance.

JUDGMENT :

1. Rule. Learned advocate waives service of rule on behalf of respondent-Corporation.

2. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is filed seeking direction to set aside the action on the part of the respondent-corporation in declaring the petitioner as unqualified/unsuccessful candidate in the direct selection process of staff Nurse.

3. It is the case of the petitioner that though the petitioner had applied as candidate of reserved category and since has received marks in the qualifying examination at par and more than the candidates of general category, the petitioner may be treated as candidate of general category and the respondent-corporation may not insist upon the petitioner to produce caste certificate of the petitioner being reserved category.

4. Learned advocate for the petitioner submitted that the petitioner belongs to poor background, but has qualification of B.Sc. Nursing from nursing college at Jodhpur, Rajasthan and he belongs to reserved category as Other Backwards Class (OBC) as he belongs to 28 JAt which is a category recognized as a OBC in the State of Rajasthan. The petitioner had produced the relevant caste certificate from the office of the Sub-Registrar, Parbatsar Naguar. The petitioner had appeared in the written examination conducted on 15.12.2019 at Vadodara and the result came to be declared on 10.03.2020 and accordingly, provisional list of qualified candidates was made public. Upon being qualified in the written examination, the petitioner was called for document verification alongwith other candidates on 18.03.2020. From the provisional list of candidates declared successful in the written examination, the petitioner was at Sr.No.9 shown in general category (OBC) and having obtained 131 marks. It is submitted that the last candidate of the reserved category had received 125.5 marks and as the petitioner was receiving marks more than the last category of general category candidate, the petitioner was himself treated as a candidate of general (OBC) as is indicated in the provisional list of selected candidates. He draws attention of this Court to Annexure-D and Annexure-E and submitted that after the petitioner was called at the stage of document verification, the petitioner was asked to produce caste certificate of SEBC issued by appropriate authority of State of Gujarat. As the petitioner was unable to do so, the petitioner’s name was listed in the list of disqualified candidates (Annexure-E) on the ground of non-production of caste certificate from the appropriate authority of the State of Gujarat. It is submitted that the decision of the respondent is not in consonance with the correct position of law as the petitioner belongs to OBC in the State of Rajasthan and his caste appears at Sr. No.28 of the Central list, but since the petitioner has cleared examination and stood on merits at par with the candidate of general category, the respondent-corporation ought not to have insisted to produce the caste certificate at all and treated the petitioner as candidate of reserved category.

5. As against this, learned advocate for the respondent-corporation submitted that the petitioner has already admitted that he belonged to 28 JAT which is considered as OBC category in the State of Rajasthan and, therefore, when the category of the petitioner was asked while filling up an application form, he has applied for the post of such class in SEB category which clearly reflects that the petitioner has filled up the form for the post of Staff Nurse in SEBC category. As per the mandatory provision and important terms and conditions of the recruitment process, it is specifically provided that any candidate applies for any post in any of the reservation then, he must possess caste certificate issued by the competent authority of the Government of Gujarat only and his particular caste can be considered only when such caste is approved and sanctioned by the Government of Gujarat, then only