The essential qualifications for appointment to a post are for the employer to decide, and the court cannot lay down the conditions of eligibility.

ORDER :

1. The petitioner in this case, an aspirant for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in the State of Jharkhand has filed this writ petition seeking issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus commanding upon the respondents, particularly respondent no.3 that horizontal quota in the sports category should be provided to him for the examination held for Civil Judge (Junior Division) in pursuance of Advertisement No. 12/2018 dated 24.12.2018. He has also prayed for issuance of writ in the nature of mandamus commanding upon the respondents to take appropriate action with respect to his candidature for the aforesaid post in the aforesaid examination.

2. The chronological order of events may be succinctly narrated as follows:

(i) On 26.10.1998 the Indian Olympic Association granted recognition to the School Games Federation of India.

(ii) On 12.09.2007 Sports Policy was formulated by the State of Jharkhand.

(iii) The petitioner, on 13.12.2010, participated in 56th National School Games 2010-11 held between 09.12.2010 to 13.12.2010. The petitioner was a member of the team that won Soft Ball competition and secured first place.

(iv) On 12.02.2011 the Indian Olympic Association in its Annual General Assembly took a decision that there will not be any category of recognized members and only the affiliated federations and associations shall be the members of the Indian Olympic Association.

(v) In the meantime, the advertisement dated 24.12.2018 was issued by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission, Ranchi (hereinafter referred to as “JPSC” for brevity). The petitioner submitted his application under ‘Unreserved’ category and also claimed for reservation on the basis of Sports Quota.

(vi) On 27.05.2019 Preliminary Test was conducted and the results were declared on 19.07.2019. The petitioner qualified in the Preliminary Test. He also took the Main written examination. Interviews were held between 16.12.2019 to 20.01.2020.

(vii) On 11.02.2020 final results were published. The petitioner’s name was not in the final list.

(viii) On 18.03.2020 the petitioner preferred a representation to the JPSC.

(ix) On 20.03.2020, marks statement was published by the JPSC.

Since the petitioner was aggrieved by the decision of the JPSC not to treating him as a successful candidate in the Unreserved category with horizontal reservation of Sports Quota, he filed the present writ petition.

3. The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner was provisionally selected for interview by horizontal reservation. The said marks statement contained and endorsement ‘Sports Certificate not produced as per advertisement’ and then therefore, he was held to be not successful in the examination. Respondent No.3, i.e., JPSC took the specific plea that 56th National School Games 2010 certificate of which was produced by the petitioner for seeking reservation under the Sports Quota was organized by the Directorate of Public Instructions, Government of Chhattisgarh under the aegis of the School Games Federation of India and not by a federation affiliated with the Indian Olympic Association and as such, the said sports certificate is not valid for extending the benefits of reservation in terms of the advertisement.

The School Games Federation of India is recognised by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India and the Indian Olympic Association, and the Directorate of Public Instructions, Government of Chhattisgarh is not recognized/affiliated body to the Indian Olympic Association. Therefore, it is a specific case of the JPSC that there is difference between recognized and affiliated institutions and benefit of reservation can only be extended to the local resident of the State of Jharkhand. No recommendation was made by the JPSC against Sports Quota as no candidate was found eligible.

4. In the rejoinder affidavit, the petitioner, inter alia, further raise