The mandatory participation in qualifying tests for public recruitment cannot be waived for individual candidates based on personal circumstances.

ORDER

Per: - Rajinder Singh Dogra, Judicial Member

1. The SWP No.1361/2018 was transferred from the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and was registered as T.A No.8569/2020 by the Registry of this Tribunal.

2. The present matter was filed before the Hon’ble High Court seeking following relief: -

a) In view of the above submissions and those to be urged at the time of hearing, it is, therefore, most humbly prayed that the directions may kindly be issued to the respondents:-

to quash order No. SSB/Secy/Sel/2018/6056-60 dated 13.06.2018 and order No. SSB/Secy/Sel/2018/6063-67 dated 14.06.2018 by which the respondents have invited the candidates for appearing in the working knowledge of Urdu for the post of Patwari in pursuance of Advertisement Notice No. 06 of 2015 dated 01.09.2015, by issuance of writ of certiorari;

ii/to issue directions to the respondents to conduct the test for working knowledge of Urdu for the post of Patwari of the petitioner in pursuance of Advertisement Notice No. 06 of 2015 dated 01.09.2015, by issuance of writ of mandamus;

to issue directions to the respondents to consider 00028 of the petitioner for selection/appointment for the post of Patwari in pursuance of Advertisement Notice No. 06 of 2015 dated 01.09.2015 for which the petitioner has duly qualified the written test, viva and having knowledge of Urdu, by issuance of writ of mandamus; AND

Any other writ, order or directions as the hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of the case may kindly be passed in favour of the petitioner and against the respondents.

3. The facts of the case as pleaded by the petitioner in his pleadings are as follows: -

a) The present Transfer Application arises out of SWP No. 1361/2018, originally filed before the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir, which upon constitution of this Tribunal came to be transferred and registered.

b) The applicant, Tanveer Ahmed, claims to be a permanent resident of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir and asserts that he is fully qualified and eligible for appointment to the post of Patwari. He states that he passed Matriculation with Urdu as one of the subjects, thereafter completed 10+2, Graduation, and Post-Graduation in Political Science from IGNOU, and belongs to the RBA category.

c) The Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board issued Advertisement Notice No. 06 of 2015 dated 01.09.2015 inviting applications for several posts including 32 posts of Patwari for District Doda, for which the prescribed qualification was Graduation with knowledge of Urdu. The applicant applied pursuant thereto.

d) Subsequently, vide Notice dated 18.11.2017, the Board notified the syllabus for the Patwari post and clarified that candidates would first appear in a multiple-choice written test, followed by a test for working knowledge of Urdu for those shortlisted on the basis of written examination. The applicant appeared in the written examination conducted on 25.02.2018 under Roll No. 30242027446.

e) Thereafter, the Board issued Notification dated 28.03.2018 prescribing the selection criteria, according to which selection was to be made out of 100 marks, with 80 marks for written test and 20 marks for viva voce, and the test of working knowledge of Urdu was described as qualifying in nature.

f) Vide Notification dated 09.05.2018, the applicant was shortlisted for viva voce, and his interview was conducted on 31.05.2018 at Jammu. Thereafter, the Board issued Notices dated 13.06.2018 and 14.06.2018 scheduling the test for working knowledge of Urdu on 01.07.2018 and laying down general instructions.

g) The applicant states that though he possesses knowledge of Urdu and had s