IMPORTANT POINT
The enhancement of posts in a recruitment process without reopening applications violates the right to equal opportunity under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

JUDGMENT :

BY THE COURT :

1. The instant writ petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India have been preferred by the petitioners being aggrieved by the action of respondents department for not granting fair chance of consideration to the petitioners in the ongoing selection process of Ayurveda Compounder/Nurse Junior Grade and for quashing of the impugned order dated 28.06.2024 (Annexure 4 of S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10949/2024) passed by the Rajasthan Government’s Department of Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (AYUSH Department) whereby the seats have been added to the post of Compounder/Nurse Junior Grade in advertisement No. 1/2023 dated 03.10.2023 (05.10.2023) (Annexure 1 of S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10949/2024).

2. The issue involved in all these matters is similar and therefore with the consent of the parties, all the matters have been heard together and being decided by the instant common order. For the purpose of convenience, the facts reflected in this order would be of S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10949/2024.

3. Briefly stating the facts of the case are that the Central Government and State Government for the promotion and advancement of the alternate medicine system have made Department of AYUSH (hereinafter referred as “Respondent Department”) which manages and regulates all these alternate departments including Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani. For this reason, respondent department decided to recruit/appoint people and for the same purpose recruitment process has been made. The respondent department issued an advertisement for appointment on the post of Nurse/Compounder Junior Grade in the State vide advertisement No. 1/2023 dated 03.10.2023 (Annexure 1) and this is governed by Rajasthan Ayurvedic, Unani, Homeopathy and Naturopathy Subordinate Service Rules,1966 (hereinafter referred as “The Rules of 1966”). The applications were called accordingly and the notifications & other terms and conditions were also annexed with the said advertisement. The prescribed qualification for all three sets viz., Ayurvedic, Homoeopathy and Unani for the post of Compounder/Nurse Junior Grade has been mentioned in the advertisement itself, which is three years diploma or four years B.Sc. in Ayurveda Nursing from any University of India which is established in accordance with law. The condition precedent for the candidates was that they have to obtain their educational qualification before the last date of filling of the form i.e., 05.11.2023 and proof of which would have to be submitted by them at the time of document verification. Further, it is mentioned that the qualification stated in the advertisement were also in consonance to the Rules of 1966. Some of the petitioners applied for the recruitment process in their respective categories for which the bifurcation has been mentioned in the advertisement for filling up the total 947 posts of Compounder/Nurse Junior Grade for direct recruitment on the regular post. Out of total 947 posts, 495 posts are for Ayurveda Department (Non-TSP = 456 + TSP = 39); 288 posts for Homeopathy Department (Non-TSP = 265 + TSP = 23) and 164 posts for Unani Department (Non-TSP =160 + TSP= 4). As per Rule 9 of the Rules of 1966, the actual number of vacancies occurring during the financial year shall be determined by the Appointing Authority on 1st of April every year. These writ petitions consists two categories of participants/candidates i.e., the candidates who could not even fill the application forms as they were not having their degrees at the relevant time because of the prolongment in receiving their degrees as they were in COVID batch and government stretched their academic courses time to time and owing to the above they could not obtained their degrees before the cut-off date. (As mentioned in S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 10947/2024). The another category was the candidates who though applied for the post in Ayurveda Department for which the copy of