Minimum educational qualifications for employment must be fulfilled as per revised policy; applicants' education credentials were inadequate.

ORDER

By Akhil Kumar Srivastava, JM;

The applicants in these cases are aggrieved that they have not been offered appointment in lieu of the land acquired by the respondents.

2. The issue involved in all these OAs are common in nature as the dispute is regarding not fulfilling the minimum educational qualification required for the appointment. Hence, all these OAs are decided by way of a common order.

3. Brief facts of these cases are that the respondents have acquired the land of family members of the applicant and an award to this effect was passed on different dates. As per the policy of the respondents, one family member is entitled for service. In pursuance to the above, the applicants submitted their application for providing them employment assistance. While the cases of applicants in OA Nos.200/447/2023 & 2001252/2024 have been rejected on the ground that they are only 8^th pass and do not possess the minimum educational qualification required for the post, the applicant in OA No.200/106/2025 did not receive any order of Page 3 of 8 ANUPAM2 025.08.18 rejection. However, in reply it has been brought out that the applicant in OA 200/106/2025 has submitted 10^th class marksheet issued by the Sanskrit Board and as per RBE No.76/2009, the M.P. Sanskrit Board is not recognized as an official education board.

4. The respondents have stated in their reply that as per Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 (hereinafter referred to as ‘2013 Act’ for brevity), there is no provision to grant employment. The provisions of 2013 Act related to the determination of compensation in accordance with the First, Second and Third Schedules of the 2013 have become applicable to all cases of land acquisition under the Railways Act 1989 also, which means that irrespective of whether land acquisition for Railway projects is done through Railways Act 1989 after declaring it as a Special Railway Project or through 2013 Act through State Governments, determination of compensation shall be in accordance with the First, Second and Third Schedules of the 2013 Act. The modalities for the implementation of serial No.4 of the 2^nd schedule of the 2013 Act were examined by the Ministry of Railways and it has been decided that earlier policy of offering Page 4 of 8 ANUPAM2 025.08.18 appointment in Railways to affected land losers is withdrawn and circular issued in this regard stands superseded vide RBE No.193/2019 dated 11.11.2019. In these cases, the acquisition of portion of the land is made under the 2013 Act. Further, the applicant in these cases are 10^th fail and do not fulfill the minimum educational qualifications required for appointment in Level-1.

4.1 Further, as per the instructions contained in RBE No. 129/2013 (Estt Rule No. 216/2013) minimum educational qualification for recruitment in Pay Band-1 of 5200-20200 (GP 1800/-) will be 10^th pass or ITI or equivalent or National Apprenticeship Certificate granted by NCVT and these new instructions will be applicable for all future recruitment henceforth against direct recruitment quota through all modes. The applicants in all these cases do not fulfill the minimum educational qualifications required for appointment. Since no recruitment/appointment of land losers shall be entertained by granting relaxation of requisite minimum educational qualifications for appointment in Level-1 of the pay matrix, the claim of the applicants for offering of employment assistance against acquisition of land cannot be considered.

5. We have heard learned