The central legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for technical degrees in engineering to be recognized by the appropriate authority, as per AICTE guidelines, to be considered valid for selection processes.

1. This petition is admitted to hearing and taken on board for final consideration as it pertains to the year 2009.

2. Through the instant writ petition, the petitioner seeks the following reliefs:-

(i) Writ of certiorari to set aside and quash the final select list issued on 12.06.2009 by the Secretary, J&K Service Selection Board, whereby the respondent No. 3, who is lower in merit than the petitioner, has been selected in O.S.C category, in place of the petitioner.

(ii) Writ of Mandamus commanding the respondents to consider the petitioner for selection and appointment to the post of Junior Engineer Mechanical.”

3. The factual matrix of the case is that the petitioner claims to be a graduate in Automobile Engineering from Gulbarga University. He has passed his M. Tech. in Mechanical Designs in the year 2007. On 31.05.2008, the J&K Service Selection Board issued Advertisement Notification No. 08 of 2008, inviting applications for the posts of Jr. Engineers (Mechanical). The petitioner being eligible submitted his application form along with the certificates of qualifications and other Social Caste Category, as the petitioner belongs to OSC category as prescribed in the Reservation Rules for the post of Jr. Engineers (Mechanical). Thereafter on the basis of the merit of the candidates who had applied to the Service Selection Board pursuant to the Advertisement Notification dated 31.05.2008. The candidates were invited to participate in the selection process. The petitioner was also called to appear in the interview. After the interviews were conducted by the Selection Committee/Board, a provisional select list was notified by the Board, wherein petitioner’s name figures in the provisional select list notified by the Board in other Social Castes Category.

4. It is further contended that, the select list was issued by the Selection Board, however, instead of the name of the petitioner, name of one Vikas Chalotra-respondent No. 3 has been shown, who was lower in merit than the petitioner. Once the provisional list was notified, wherein the name of the petitioner was shown as one of the selected candidates in the OSC Category, the respondents cannot arbitrarily delete the name of the petitioner from the final list and include the name of private respondent No.3. This action of the respondents of excluding the name of the petitioner from the final select list and including the name of respondent No.3 is highly illegal, arbitrary, unreasonable and wrong. The selection of respondent No.3 in OSC category is assailed in this petition, precisely on the following amongst other grounds:

“(a) “That the posts of Jr. Engineers Mechanical were advertised by the Service Selection Board and in response to the said advertisement notice, the petitioner submitted his application form as the petitioner is engineering graduate and also possesses Master Degree in engineering i.e. M. Tech. On the basis of the merit, the petitioner was called by the Service Selection Board to participate in the interview. The petitioner participated in the selection process and was selected in the provisional list. The said list was notified by the Board in view of the merit of the candidates. The petitioner’s merit was the highest in the OSC category and, therefore, he was the only candidate shown to have been selected in the OSC Category. The exclusion of the name of the petitioner from the final list and selection of respondent No. 3 in the final list in placed of the petitioner is arbitrary, illegal, wrong and unconstitutional. The merit has been framed by the Selection Board on the basis of the Qualification of the candidates who appeared in the selection process. The petitioner, as already stated herein above, was graduate and also had acquired Post Graduate Degree before the submission of application form and on the basis of his academic merit and mar