Eligibility for a position should be determined based on the rules of eligibility as contained in the Recruitment and Promotion Rules and the advertisement. Any additional requirements not specified in these documents cannot be imposed retrospectively and should not form the basis for rejecting a candidate's candidature.

JUDGMENT

Ajay Mohan Goel, J. - By way of this petition, the petitioner has prayed for the following substantive relief:-

"(i) to issue a writ in the nature of Certiorari quashing the letter/order dated 25.4.2019 (Annexure P-12) vide which the candidature of the petitioner has been rejected despite the acquisition of qualification as per advertisement Annexure P-1; and further to issue a writ in the nature of Mandamus directing the respondents to consider the petitioner for the post of Mal Multipurpose Health Worker especially when the petitioner possesses all the requisite qualification and conditions as per the advertisement and further the posts of Male Multipurpose Health Workers are lying vacant and further to issue any other appropriate order or direction as this Hon'ble Court may deem fit in the peculiar facts and circumstances of the case to grant appropriate relief to the petitioner."

2. The case of the petitioner is that vide advertisement No. 33-2/2017 (Annexure P-1), issued by respondent No. 2, in the month of September, 2017, various posts were advertised to be filled up in different departments of the Government of Himachal Pradesh, including Male Multipurpose Health Workers on contract basis in the Health and Family Welfare Department of the State, i.e. total 148 in number. The eligibility criteria for applying to the post in issue as was contained against post Code No. 650 was as under:-

3. The petitioner being eligible to apply for the post of Male Multipurpose Health Worker did so, however, his candidature has been rejected by the respondent-Commission vide notification dated 25.04.2019 (Annexure P-12), on the ground that the petitioner has failed to produce registration certificate as Male Multipurpose Health Worker with H.P. Para Medical Council within stipulated period.

4. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has submitted that the ground on which the candidature of the petitioner has been rejected by the respondent-Commission is erroneous, as there was no such condition contemplated in the advertisement that only those candidates would be eligible to participate in the process of selection for the post in issue who were possessing registration certificate as Male Multipurpose Health Worker with H.P. Para Medical Council. As per him, rejection of the candidature of the petitioner on the said ground is arbitrary, discriminatory, and thus, not sustainable in the eyes of law being violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India. He further submitted that the candidature of the petitioner cannot be rejected on a condition which is alien to the advertisement and in the absence of there being any such embargo in the advertisement inviting the applications, such condition could not be subsequently imposed rendering the candidature of the candidates like the petitioner as bad. Learned Counsel has further submitted that it is not as if the basic qualification possessed by the petitioner rendered him ineligible to participate in the process of selection for the post in issue as he was possessing qualification prescribed in the Recruitment and Promotion Rules and the factum of the qualification being possessed by the petitioner being valid qualification is further evident from the fact that subsequently on his application, petitioner has been duly registered with H.P. Para Medical Council, as is evident from certificate of registration (Annexure P-15). Accordingly, he has prayed that the petition be allowed by setting aside communication dated 25.04.2019 (Annexure P-12) by directing the respondents to consider the candidature of the petitioner for the posts in issue without insisting upon the condition of registration certificate as Male Multipurpose Health Worker wi