The amendment to the recruitment rules requiring batch recognition from the B.Ed issuance date does not violate constitutional rights and is justified based on the necessity of complete qualifications for appointment.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

1. By way of this Writ Petition, the petitioners have, inter alia, prayed for the following reliefs:-

“I) Issue a Writ of mandamus directing the respondents to appoint the Petitioners as Language Teachers by treating their batch from the date they possessed B.A. Degree;

II) Issue a writ of certiorari quashing and setting aside the impugned amendment of treating the batch for recruitment after 2013 from the date the aspirants/ Petitioners acquired their B.Ed;

III) Issue a writ of certiorari quashing and setting aside rejection order dated 18.01.2022 passe3d by respondents;

IV) Issue a writ of mandamus directing the respondents to produce the entire record.”

2. The case of the petitioners is that they are un-employedand fully eligible to be appointed as Language Teachers. They fulfill the requisite criteria for appointment against the post in question in terms of the Recruitment & Promotion Rules. The petitioners have done their Graduation with more than 50% marks in Hindi as an elective subject and they have also acquired the essential qualification of B.Ed and have also passed the mandatory Teachers Eligibility Test. The dates of acquiring of the qualification by the petitioners are spelled out in Para-4 of the Writ Petition. According to the petitioners, earlier for the purpose of batch-wise recruitment, the eligibility was ascertained from the date when the candidates acquired the qualification of Graduation. However, vide Notification dated 16.11.2023, vide which the Himachal Pradesh Elementary Education Department, Class-III (Non-Gazetted) Recruitment & Promotion Rules, 2009 have been amended, Note-I and Note-2, have been introduced by way of amendment and in terms thereof, the existing provisions of Column-7 of the Recruitment & Promotion Rules have been substituted, inter alia, to the following effect:-

“Note (i): For batch wise recruitment to be made up to 31.3.2014, the batch would be reckoned from the date of issuance of original certificate of B.A. with Hindi as elective subject/ B.A. after Prabhakar by passing English and additional subject/M.A. Hindi, on the basis of which eligibility of the candidate is reckoned.

ii) For batch wise recruitment to be made after 3.1.32014, the batch would be reckoned from the date of issuance of original certificate of Bachlor of Education (B.Ed.).”

3. Learned counsel for the petitioners has argued that before the introduction of the impugned amendment, the batch for the purpose of recruitment to the Language Teacher was reckoned from the date of issuance of the original certificate of the Graduation Degree qua the candidates who had done Graduation in Hindi as an elective subject. However, in terms of the impugned amendment, dated 16.11.2013, all the recruitments which are to be effected after 31.03.2014 on batch-wise basis, will be by treating the batch to be reckoned from the date of issuance of original certificate of Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.).

4. According to learned counsel, this cut-off date is arbitrary and the classification which has been made to reckon the qualification post 31.03.2024 on the basis of the date of issuance of the original certificate of B.Ed., Degree, is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, as it is neither based on any intelligible differentia nor the classification has a reasonable nexus with the objective to be a