Hyper-technical rejection of OBC non-creamy layer certificate invalid where substantive certification clear and error by issuing authority; candidate not to suffer, entitled to reservation benefits on holistic examination.

ORDER

Per : Hon’ble Shri Lok Ranjan, Member (A)

The present Original Application had been filed by the Applicant upon his Certificate of belonging to OBC Category and not to the creamy layer therein being not accepted by the Respondents ; and consequently being aggrieved by not being appointed against an advertised post with Grade Pay of Rs.1800 under the North Western Railway

2. In response to the EmploymentNoticeNo.02/2012 issued by the Respondents for filling up 329 posts of Track Man, Khalasi, Pointsman, Helper, Gateman etc. in Pay Band-I of Rs.(5200-20200)/- with Grade Pay (GP) of Rs.1800/-in the North Western Railway (NWR), the Applicant also applied therefor as a candidate belonging to OBC category. As per results declared in due course, the Applicant was declared as having qualified on the basis of written examination and was called for physical examination, for which he had appeared on 28.02.2014;and had appeared later for verification of documents inter alia his OBC certificate issued by the State Government and Central Government. However, the updated result/status uploaded on internet after document verification had showed the remark "not called due to low in merit" for the Applicant – purportedly by treating him to belong to General and not OBC category and thereby evaluating his merit in relation to the cut-off for the General category.

3. Thereafter, the Applicant had obtained information under RTI vide the impugned letter dated 05.05.2014 of the Respondents that since the column of creamy layer in OBC certificate No.2131 dated 28.03.2011 was crossed out, therefore the Applicant was treated to be of General category. Moreover, as per information obtained furnished under RTI vide the letterdated24.06.2014 of the Respondents, it had emerged that the Applicant had secured 71.14% marks, whereas the cut-off was 69.95%for OBC category and 72.23% for General Category.

4. Upon a prayer of the Applicant herein, the issuing office, i.e. Tehsildar Chomu Tehsil, had vide the letter dated 23.07.2014 confirmed that the OBC Category Certificate dated 28.03.2011 had been issued by that office ; and further clarified that the column at the bottom had been struck-out in respect of the blank/unfilled spaces therein, but the statement regarding the Certificate-holder not belonging to creamy layer was not struck-out. It was also stated thereby that the Applicant belonged to non-creamy layer and the Certificate issued previously be deemed to be as such. Further the Tehsildar issued another Certificate No.1677 dated 21.07.2014 whereby in the bottom portion, instead of striking out the blank spaces as previously, the entries/fields in the bottom portion – that had actually pertained to the Name and the Residential Address (Village, Tehsil, District and the State), of the applicant had been filled-in– and thereby the Applicant was shown to be not belonging to creamy layer.

5. The Applicant had thereafter prayed to the Respondents to consider him in OBC category, not belonging to creamy layer, as the concerned Tehsildar had already clarified that the same had been not struck-out in the original Certificate issued for the Applicant ; and had issued another OBC Certificate in support of the OBC, Non- creamy Layer status of the Applicant, where entries had also been suitably filled-in against the columns that were left blank in the previous Certificate.

6. It wa