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2017 Supreme(Raj) 227
IN THE HIGH COURT OF RAJASTHAN (JAIPUR BENCH)
Ajay Rastogi, J.
Santara Bai Bairwa and Ors. - Appellants
Vs.
State of Rajasthan and Ors. - Respondents
Civil Writ Petition Nos. 8464, 6345, 6907, 7322, 7944, 14222 & 17001 of 2016
Decided On : 01-02-2017
For the Appellant : J.K. Singhi, O.P. Pareek, Ashok Bansal, Sandeep Kumar Sharma, Vinod Pathak, Manish Kumar Sharma, V.K. Sharma
For the Respondents: Dharamveer Tholia, Sandeep Maheshwariand Vigyan Shah
Important Point—Principle applicable to vertical reservations will not apply to horizontal reservations.
Headnote:(A) Service Law—Selection—Person who has consciously taken part in selection process cannot thereafter turn around and question method of selection/procedure and its outcome—At the same time, action which is per se violative of statutory Rules or there is an infringement of legal or fundamental rights enshrined in Constitution, that will not preclude candidate from assailing the same even after participating in the process and there may not be any estoppel.
(B) Service Law—Selection—Cut-off marks of male and female of all categories are common but reason for common cut-off marks which has come on record, reveals that number of female candidates selected in each category on their own merit are more than number of vacancies reserved for them and this being a horizontal reservation, if women candidates are selected on their own merit to quota reserved for them, cutoff marks as notified for male and female in respective category will certainly remain the same—Principle applicable to vertical reservations will not apply to horizontal reservations.
(C) Service Law—Selection—Mere objection that answer key has not been uploaded that itself is not suffice to annul process unless it is found beyond realm of doubt that key answer published by Expert is incorrect—As a matter of caution, it is advisable for Board to upload answer key and invite objections which would have enabled Board in finalizing answer key to rule out errors as possible.
Result—Petitions dismissed.
Ajay Rastogi, J.
1. Instant batch of writ petitions have been filed by the candidates who have participated in the selection process held for the post of Nursery Teacher Training (NTT) included in the Schedule appended to the Rajasthan Woman and Child Development (State & Subordinate) Service Rules, 1998 & notified vide advertisement dt. 27.08.2013.
2. The facts, in brief, as consented, have been noticed from Writ Petition Nos. 8464/2016 & 1422/2016 are that the advertisement for 1148 vacancies of Nursery Teachers Training (NTT) came to be notified by the respondents vide advertisement dated 27.08.2013 and the selection is based solely on the written examination and the syllabus is of pre-primary level and related to the overall development of child from 0 to 6 years and such of the candidates who are holding Senior Secondary with two years diploma in NTT recognized by NCTE and affiliated by SCERT are eligible to participate in the process.
3. It may be relevant to note that initially the department issued an advertisement holding selection process pursuant to the advertisement dt. 27.08.2013 and it reveals that thereafter the selection process was handed over to the Rajasthan Subordinate and Ministerial Service Selection Board (hereinafter referred to 'the Board') and in furtherance thereof, press note was released on 21.03.2016 laying down the procedure to be followed by the Board and as per its Cl. 12 opportunity was afforded to the candidates to submit their objections on-line within 72 hours if there is any error in the question paper and the candidates participated in the written examination without any demur, held on 03.04.2016, which was a multiple choice question paper of one mark each, according to the syllabus available on their website and assessible to the candidates and on the instruction sheet provided to the candidates there was Note-6 that 1/3 part of the mark (s) of each question will be deducted for each wrong answer and there will be negative marking for wrong answers.
4. After the written examination was held on 03.04.2016 invoking cl. (12) of the press note inviting on-line objections from the candidates regarding error in question paper within 72 hours, it has come on record that in all objections were received for 7 questions and that was referred to by the Board to the expert committee and after examined by the Key Validation Committee it was placed before the Board in its 38th Meeting and on the recommendations made by the expert committee & Key Validation Committee question No. 56 of 'A' series and corresponding series was deleted and the result was forwarded to the State Government of those candidates who secured minimum 40% qualifying marks in the written examination on 28.04.2016 (Annex.R-2/2). In furtherance thereof, the State Government declared category-wise cut-off marks and result of the selected candidates on 06.05.2016.
5. Some of the candidates, under Right to Information Act, 2005 asked for answer key which was made available to them, on demand, on 09.05.2016 (Annex.9) and thereafter the aggrieved candidates approached this court by filing the batch of writ petitions on many-fold grounds which are summarized as under:-
"(1) Similar cut-off marks have been notified of male and female which is not possible and this appears to be an apparent error in the process of selection.
(2) The answer key was not uploaded and made available only on demand under the Act of 2005, that has deprived the candidates in submitting their objections in reference to the answer key and their right of fair selection has been seriously affected and the procedure followed by the respondents cannot be said to be fair and transparent, needs indulgence.
(3) There is also an objection that there is no provision of negative marking provided under the scheme of rules and such practice which has been adopted by the r
