JUDGMENT :

1. This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India has been preferred claiming the following reliefs:

“It is therefore, most humbly prayed that your Lordship may graciously be pleased to accept and allow this writ petition and call for entire record and examine entire record of the case and by an appropriate writ, order and direction:-

i) The impugned order dated 09.07.2021 (Ann.5) declare illegal and also may be quashed and set aside.

ii) The respondents may kindly be directed to give appointment to the petitioner on the post of Constable GD in GRP, Jodhpur with all consequential benefits.

iii) Any other order which this Hon’ble Court deemed just and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case may also be passed in favour of the Petitioner.”

2. Brief facts of the case, as placed before this Court by learned counsel for the petitioner, are that the respondents issued an advertisement dated 04.12.2019 under the Rajasthan Police Subordinate Services Rules, 1989 for the post of Constable for various districts of the State. The petitioner, being eligible, submitted his application, in pursuance of the said advertisement. Thereafter, the petitioner participated in the examination and was declared successful in the same. The respondents issued Press Note on 10.04.2021, calling the successful candidates, including the present petitioner, for documents verification and medical test before the concerned authorities. Thereafter, the respondents issued selection list of the candidates for the post in question, wherein the petitioner’s name was shown at Serial No. 22.

2.1. Subsequently, the respondents vide impugned order dated 09.07.2021 declared the petitioner ineligible for the post in question on account of registration of a criminal case against him. Thus, being aggrieved of the said order, the present petition has been preferred claiming the afore quoted reliefs.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that at the time of submission of the application form for the post in question, there was no criminal case pending against the petitioner; however, at the time when the petitioner was a juvenile, an FIR bearing No. 250/2018 was registered against him and other persons, at Police Station, Soorwal, District Sawaimadhopur, but the petitioner being a juvenile, at the relevant time, the trial of the case qua the petitioner, was conducted before the learned Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), Sawaimadhopur for the offence under Sections 341, 323, 452 & 34 IPC.

3.1. Learned counsel further submits that the learned JJB in its order dated 05.08.2019 considered the confession of the petitioner and convicted him, with a direction for deposition of Rs. 700/- as fine, and further, the learned JJB made an observation for removal of such conviction as disqualification, as regards the petitioner’s future prospects, in accordance with Section 24 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 2015’).

3.2. Learned counsel also submits that in view of the aforesaid observations so made by the learned JJB, the petitioner could not have been declared as ineligible for the post in question, on count of the reason so assigned therefor in the impugned order; moreover, with the lapse of time and upon acquittal of the main accused and other co-accused, in the aforementioned FIR, by the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sawaimadhopur, vide judgment dated 26.07.2019, the disqualification in question no more survived.

3.3. Learned counsel further submits that the petitioner is a meritorious candidate and was selected, after due completion of the recruitment process for the post in question, and therefore, on count of the aforesaid reasons, the petitioner could not have been declared as ineligible only on count of the aforementioned criminal case.

3.4. In support of such submissions, learned counsel relied upon the following judgments:-

(a) State of Rajasthan & Ors. Vs Ms. Sajjan