The court affirmed that eligibility criteria in recruitment rules, including cut-off dates for qualifications, must be rational and can be upheld unless proven discriminatory or arbitrary.

JUDGMENT

Petitioners have challenged the vires of Clause (iii) of second proviso Rule 11 of the Rajasthan Educational Subordinate Service Rules, 1971 (hereinafter to be referred as 'the said Rules') in the following background:-

The petitioners are Ex-servicemen. The Rajasthan Public Service Commission had advertised several posts for Senior Teachers in Government schools on 09.04.2018. As per the advertisement, the application could be filed between 10.05.2018 to 09.06.2018. Corrections in the applications made could be done between 10.06.2018 to 16.06.2018. The selection was to be made on the basis of written examination alone. In other words, there would be no oral interview but the selected candidate would be counseled before issuing the appointment orders. The date of this written examination was not published in the advertisement. It was held on 01.11.2018. The result of the written examination was published on 08.08.2019 and the counseling took place on 29.11.2019 and 02.12.2019.

Rule 11 of the said Rules pertains to academic and technical qualification and experience. Sub-Rule 1 of Rule 11 provides that a candidate for direct recruitment to the post mentioned in the schedule, shall in addition to such experience as required, possess qualification given in Column 4 of the Schedule and working knowledge of Hindi written in Devnagri script and knowledge of Rajasthani culture. Second proviso of this rule which is relevant for our purpose, reads as under:-

"Provided that the person who has appeared on is appearing in the final year examination of the course, which is requisite educational qualification for the post as mentioned in the rules or Schedules for direct recruitment, shall be eligible to apply for the post but he/she shall have to submit proof of having acquired the requisite educational qualification to the appropriate selection agency:-

(a) before appearing in the main examination, where selection is made through two stages of written examination and interview;

(b) before appearing in interview, where selection is made through written examination and interview;

(c) before appearing in the written examination or interview where selection is made through only written examination or only interview as the case may be."

As per this proviso, thus a person who has appeared or is appearing in final examination of the course which is an essential qualification for the post in question will also be eligible to apply but he or she will have to submit proof of requisite qualifications to the selection agency as mentioned in three clauses (a) to (c) contained therein. If we analyse these three clauses, the requirement of showing proof of acquisition of requisite qualification is trifurcated. Clause (a) provides cut off date as one before appearing in main examination where selection is made through two stages of written examination followed by interview. As per clause (b), such cut off date will be before appearing in interview where selection is made through written examination and interview and lastly clause (c) which is under challenge provides a cut off date as before appearing in written examination or interview where selection is made through only written examination or only interview, as the case may be.

As per this rule, the petitioners were eligible to apply for the post in question even though they may not be possessing the essential educational qualification but had only appeared in the final year examination. However, the eligibility would be judged on the basis of the situation which would emerge depending upon the nature of the selection process as provided in clause (a) to (c). The case of the petitioners would fall in clause (c) since the selection process comprised only of the written examination. As per this proviso thus, even though the petitioner could have applied in response to the advertisement issued by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission, they would be treated as eligible only if before appearing in the w