The court held that procedural delays regarding resident certificates should not preclude merit-based selections for Anganwadi Workers, emphasizing the need to prioritize substantial residency claims over hyper-technical non-compliances.

JUDGMENT :

SASHIKANTA MISHRA, J.

1. The petitioner has filed this writ application with the following prayer:-

“Under the aforesaid facts and circumstances of the case, it is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to issue notice to the opposite parties, call for relevant records and after hearing counsel of parties issue a writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ quashing the impugned Notification No.976 dated 23.09.2024 under Annexure-1 and commanding Opposite parties particularly to the Opposite Party Nos.4 and 5 to finalize the selection and issue engagement order in favour of the petitioner as Anganwadi Worker of Khuntasamalai-2 Anganwadi Center under ICDS Project, Patnagarh within a stipulated time.

And/or pass such other order/orders so as to give complete relief to the petitioner. And for this act of kindness, the petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray.”

2. The facts of the case, briefly stated are that pursuant to notification dated 24.08.2015 issued by the CDPO, Patnagarh inviting applications for engagement of Anganwadi Worker for Khuntasamalai-2 Anganwadi Center, the petitioner and three other candidates submitted their applications. The petitioner secured highest marks among all the candidates but was not selected on the ground that she had not submitted her resident certificate in terms of the advertisement. The petitioner claims to be a resident of the service area of the Anganwadi Center and had submitted resident certificate showing her as such along with other documents. The petitioner subsequently submitted a resident certificate of the year 2015. In the meantime, the selection process was stalled as one of the candidates namely, Sujata Taria filed a writ application before this Court being W.P.(C) No.14582 of 2016. The petitioner also approached this Court in W.P.(C) No.7103 of 2020 seeking a direction to the authorities to finalize the selection process and to engage her as Anganwadi Worker. This Court, by order dated 26.07.2024 disposed of the writ application by directing the Sub-Collector, Patnagarh to take steps for conclusion of the selection process as early as possible, preferably, within a period of four weeks.

The Sub-Collector caused an enquiry with regard to the resident status of the candidates but instead of finalizing the same, took decision to cancel the notification and issue a fresh notification. The fresh notification was accordingly issued on 23.09.2024, which is impugned. On such facts, the petitioner has filed the present writ application with the prayer as quoted above.

3. Counter affidavit has been filed by the C.D.P.O., Patnagarh (O.P. No.5) inter alia, stating that in course of enquiry conducted by the Tahasildar, Patnagarh, it was found that the petitioner has not been residing in her village since six years and had submitted a resident certificate of the year 2014. As per the notification, she was required to produce the certificate of the year 2015 on or before 07.09.2015 but she subsequently produced the certificate dated 10.09.2015, which was not considered as it was after the due date. As such, her higher mark had no role to play. In the other writ application filed by one Sujata Taria in W.P.(C) No.14582 of 2016, similar direction was issued by this Court to the Sub-Collector to take steps for conclusion of the selection process. Accordingly, a joint proceeding was undertaken by the selection committee and an enquiry was decided to be conducted by the Tahasildar, Patnagarh. On enquiry, it was revealed that Sujata Taria is a permanent resident of Patnagarh NAC and therefore, she was asked to show cause as to w