The requirement for registration with the Rajasthan Nursing Council was deemed unnecessary prior to application submission; essential qualification assessed at verification suffices.

ORDER :

SUDESH BANSAL, J.

1. Petitioner, an aspirant for the post of Community Health Officer (Contract) against the vacancies notified vide advertisement No. 11/2022 dated 01.11.2022 by the Rajasthan Staff Selection Board, Jaipur, has preferred instant civil writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, questioning the Condition No. 1 of the advertisement, attached with the Column No. 8 of “Essential Qualification” and simultaneously has prayed to direct the respondents to consider the candidature of petitioner for appointment on the post in question, under the category of OBC NCL on merits. The Condition No. 1, which has been questioned herein, reads as under:-

2. The case of petitioner is that she possess the requisite essential qualification of GNM, at the time of submission of online application form, against the vacancies notified under advertisement dated 01.11.2022, but she was not registered with the Rajasthan Nursing Council. However, later on she has been registered with the Rajasthan Nursing Council on 14.06.2024 i.e. prior to the stage of documents verification in the present recruitment.

3. It has been pleaded that in the present recruitment, as per Condition No. 1, registration certificate was essentially required to be produced at the stage of documents verification, failing which the candidature shall be cancelled. Since petitioner has produced her Certificate of Registration at the time of documents verification, which should have been taken into account but her candidature has been cancelled and has not been considered on merits.

4. It has further been contended by petitioner that under the category of OBC NCL, she has scored 205.102 marks in the written examination and in the final result dated 09.01.2025, the last cut off marks in the category of petitioner is only 200.000; thus, if petitioner had not been ousted from consideration at the stage of documents verification, certainly she would have been selected for appointment on merits.

5. Counsel for petitioner pointed out that prior to the present writ petition, petitioner filed SBCWP No. 1000/2005, but said writ petition was withdrawn with liberty to challenge the Condition No.1 of the advertisement, hence, this writ petition has been filed.

6. Counsel for petitioner submits that a perusal of the Condition No.1, reveals that, no cut off date for securing the registration, by the aspirant, with the Rajasthan Nursing Council has been indicated therein, rather the stage of documents verification has been indicated as the period up to which the registration is required to be submitted, albeit, candidature of aspirant candidate shall be cancelled. Thus, the requirement of registration with Rajasthan Nursing Council either at the time of submission of online application form or at least application for registration must have been filed, are ambiguous & vague as much as such pre- conditions are self contradictory and do not have any consensus or nexus with the later part of Condition No.1.

7. Counsel for petitioner has placed reliance on the judgment of the Coordinate Bench of this Court at Principal Seat, Jodhpur, dated 09.01.2024 passed in SBCWP No. 15010/2023: Rajkumari Chahar Vs. The State of Rajasthan and Ors. which has been followed in another judgment passed in case of Pramila Choudhary Vs. State of Rajasthan : SBCWP No. 43/2025 vide order dated 27.02.2025, to contend that the Coordinate Bench has held and observed in Para No. 10 & 11 in case of Rajkumari Chahar (supra) as under:-

“10. Pertinently, the advertisement clearly specifies that eligibility is determined based on qualifications i.e. academic qualifications. The registration of the certificate with Homeopathy Board of the state does not necessitate any additional examinations, entrance tests, or interviews. Therefore, registering after becoming a Homeopathy graduate should not be treated as an additional qualification but rather as a mere technical formality. The registration certifica