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IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA
AJAY MOHAN GOEL, J.
Mahesh Thakur - Petitioner
Versus
State of Himachal Pradesh & others - Respondents
CWP No.2246 of 2019
Decided on : 19-03-2021
Service Laws – Appointment – Rejection of his candidature – By way of this petition, petitioner has prayed for reliefs that a writ of certiorari may kindly be issued thereby quashing order issued by respondent No.3 whereby respondents have declared final result regarding post of JOA-IT 556 – That a writ of mandamus may kindly be issued directing respondent authorities not to give appointment letter to any of candidates till final disposal of pending matters regarding the matter under adjudication by this Hon’ble Court – Grievance of petitioner is with regard to rejection of his candidature to post of Junior Office Assistant, which stood advertised by respondent- Commission vide advertisement appended with petition – Held, Even if contention of Commission that it contested eligibility of petitioner on basis of report of Commission has to be accepted, then also Commission was duty bound to have had passed some kind of order in case of petitioner, holding qualification possessed by petitioner to be an invalid qualification – This admittedly was not done – In absence of same and further in absence of any competent authority having held that Institution from which petitioner had obtained diploma was unrecognized or diploma of petitioner was unrecognized candidature of petitioner could not have arbitrarily rejected as has been done by Commission – No material has been placed on record by Commission to substantiate that diploma possessed by petitioner or institution from which diploma has been gained by petitioner is either bad or not recognized, especially as Commission was in possession of diploma of petitioner – Act of respondent- Commission of holding petitioner to be ineligible for consideration to post in issue is highly arbitrary. – In a number of cases, this Court has observed that respondent- Commission which has been entrusted with responsibility of recruiting employees from various departments of Government of Himachal Pradesh, is acting in a slipshod manner. – There appears to be no due application of mind at time of scrutiny of applications for assessing suitability of a candidate. – Court cannot lose sight of fact that country is full of unemployed youth and what more frustration can be caused to them, but by fact that institutions like respondent-Commission are arbitrarily rejecting candidature of eligible candidates. – Court is refraining from making any further observations in this regard, but a caveat is being issued to Commission that act of ascertaining eligibility of a candidate being a sacrosanct act should be undertaken by Commission with due application of mind – Writ Petition Allowed
JUDGMENT :
AJAY MOHAN GOEL, J.
CMPST No.8286 of 2021
By way of this application, a prayer has been made by the applicant/petitioner to place on record the copies of the diploma of applicant/ petitioner. Copy thereof stands supplied to learned counsel for the respondents.
Having heard learned counsel for the parties, this application is disposed of by taking the documents appended therewith on record as it is not in dispute that the documents in issue were submitted by the applicant/petitioner alongwith her Application Form for appointment to the post in issue.
CWP No.2246 of 2019
1. By way of this petition, petitioner has prayed for the following reliefs:-
(ii) that a writ of mandamus may kindly be issued directing the respondent authorities not to give the appointment letter to any of the candidates till the final disposal of the pending matters regarding the matter under adjudication by this Hon’ble Court.”
2. The grievance of the petitioner is with regard to rejection of his candidature to the post of Junior Office Assistant, which stood advertised by the respondent- Commission vide advertisement No.32-3/2016 (Annexure P-2), appended with the petition.
3. Brief facts necessary for the adjudication of the present petition are, that vide advertisement No.32-3/2016, which was issued in the month of September 2016, various posts were advertised by the respondent-Commission to be filled up in various departments of the Government of Himachal Pradesh. This also included the posts of Junior Office Assistant (on contract basis) in the pay scale of 5910- 20200+1950 (GP). The number of posts advertised in the advertisement were 704, which the Court stands informed were subsequently increased to 1156, in various departments including the department of Excise and Taxation. Incidently, though the advertisement reflected that the post is to be filled up on contract basis, but as far as department of Excise and Taxation is concerned, against this particular department 85 posts were reflected which were to be filled up on regular basis. The eligibility criteria, inter alia, envisaged the following qualifications to be possessed for the prospective candidates:-
| 556. Junior Office Assistant | i. 10+2 from a recognized Board of School Education/University. ii. One year diploma in Compute Science/Computer Application/Information Technology from a recognized University/Institution. iii. Computer typing speed of 30 words per minute in English or 25 words per minute in Hindi. OR i 10+2 from a recognized Board of School Education/University. ii. ‘O’ or ‘A’ level Diploma from National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NELIT). iii. Computer typing speed of 30 words per minute in English or 25 words per minute in Hindi. OR i. 10+2 from a recognized Board of School education/University. ii. Diploma in Information Technology (IT) from a recognized ITI/Institution. iii. Computer typing speed of 30 words per minute in English or 25 words per minute in Hindi. |
Thereafter, vide notification dated 23.02.2019, appended with the present petition as Annexure P-3, the final result on the basis of written objective test etc. was declared by the Commission and this is where the grievance of the petitioner originated as feeling aggrieved by not finding his name in the said list, when enquiries were made by him, the petitioner was appraised that his candidature stood rejected on the ground that the qualification so possessed by him was not valid for the purpose of appointment to the post in issue.
4. Today, by way of a miscellaneous application i.e. CMPST No. 6286 of 2021, wh
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