Judgment :

Sanjeev Kumar, J.

1 The petitioner has filed the present writ petition challenging order dated 09.05.2014 passed by the High Court, whereby private respondent No.4 came to be appointed as Senior Scale Stenographer under the Scheduled Caste category. The petitioner also seeks to challenge the action of the respondents in awarding zero marks to the petitioner in the shorthand transcription test.

2 At the outset, it needs to be mentioned that this writ petition was earlier disposed of vide judgment dated 30.08.2018 with a direction to the respondents that they would proceed to issue an order of appointment in favour of the petitioner against the post of Senior Scale Stenographer in case his name figured in the waiting list. The said direction was passed on the basis of a statement made by the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the respondents that in view of the fact that a candidate namely Amit Kumar, who figured at Serial No.1 in the SC category, had not joined, there would be no difficulty in operating the waiting list. However, the petitioner found the findings recorded in the judgment dated 30.08.2018 factually incorrect and suffering from an error apparent on the face of record. The petitioner, therefore, filed a review petition seeking recall of the said judgment. The review petition was allowed by this Court vide order dated 15.09.2015 and the judgment dated 30.08.2018 was recalled and the writ petition was directed to be adjudicated again on merits. Consequent thereupon, the matter was heard by this Court.

4 Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the material on record, it is necessary first set out brief factually background leading to the filing of this petition.

5 Vide Notification No.1139 dated 03.01.2012, applications were invited from eligible permanent residents of the State of Jammu & Kashmir (now UT of J&K) for seven posts of Senior Scale Stenographer. Out of these, five posts were in the pay scale of Rs.7450–11500 (pre-revised) and two posts were in the pay scale of Rs.6500–10500 (pre-revised). The category-wise breakup of the posts was as follows:

OM – 01

RBA – 03

SC – 01

ST – 01

LAC – 01

6 The eligibility criteria prescribed for direct recruitment was Graduation from a recognized University and Diploma in Stenography from an Institute recognized by the State Government. As per the method of recruitment prescribed for the post of Senior Scale Stenographer, the selection was to be made on the basis of English shorthand and typewriting test with a minimum speed of 80 words per minute in shorthand and 40 words per minute in typing. The petitioner, being eligible in all respects, applied for the lone post of Senior Scale Stenographer under the SC category. It is stated that vide Notification No.1140 dated 06.01.2012, applications were also invited for 15 posts of Junior Scale Stenographers and 04 posts of Steno Typists. The eligibility criteria was similar, with a requirement of 70 words per minute shorthand and 35 words per minute typing speed. The petitioner applied for the post of Junior Scale Stenographer as well and was selected and appointed to the said post in the High Court at Jammu, where he joined on 23.05.2014.However, the petitioner had also participated in the shorthand test conducted for the post of Senior Scale Stenographer. According to the petitioner, he performed well in both shorthand and typing tests and was expecting to be selected. However, the private respondent No.4 was appointed as Senior Scale Stenographer under the SC category vide order dated 09.05.2014.Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner sought information under the Right to Information Act, 2009, and obtained copies of the shorthand script as well as the transcription sheets. According to the petitioner, as per the Award Roll, he had typed 375 gross words with 66 mistakes in 10 minutes, whereas the private respondent had typed 357 gross words with 57 mistakes. His speed was initially assessed as 62 words per mi