Arbitrary viva-voce marks neutralising academic merit in public recruitment violate Article 14; judicial review warranted absent transparent criteria.

ORDER

Per: - Rajinder Singh Dogra, Judicial Member

1. The SWP No.2680/2021 was transferred from the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and was registered as T.A No.5797/2021 by the Registry of this Tribunal.

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

a) “Certiorari for quashing the Provisional Select List of the candidates for the post of Draftsman Civil to the extent it pertains to the respondents No. 4 to 11 pursuant to which, the respondents No. 4 to 11 have been provisionally selected to be appointed to the post of Draftsman Civil, Divisional Cadre, Jammu in accordance with the item No. 103 of 2011 advertised vide notice No. 01 of 2011 dated 30-01-2011.

b) Mandamus commanding the respondents to consider the petitioners for their appointment to the post of Draftsman Civil in the face of the weightage points obtained by them in their academic qualifications unmindful/un-interferred with the grossly deficient marks allotted to them in the interview which apparently has the potential and capability of converting the merit of the petitioners into demerit, besides dis- proportionately more marks having been fixed for the interview i.e. thirty marks.

c) Prohibition restraining the respondents from making appointment to the post of Draftsman Civil on the basis of the Provisional Select List impugned in the present writ petition.

d) The Hon'ble Court may, in the facts and circumstances of the case, be pleased to grant any other alternate/additional relief in favour of the petitioners in order to meet the ends of justice.

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

a) The present Transfer Application arises out of SWP No. 2680/2011, which was initially instituted before the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir at Jammu and, upon transfer of service matters, came to be registered as T.A. No. 5797/2021 before this Tribunal. The petitioners, namely Tanveer Ahmed and Fiyaz Ahmed, are permanent residents of District Doda and claim to be aggrieved by their non-selection to the post of Draftsman Civil (Divisional Cadre, Jammu), pursuant to Advertisement Notification No. 01 of 2011 dated 31.01.2011 issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board.

b) Under the said advertisement, applications were invited for filling up various posts of Draftsman Civil in different departments, including the Public Health Engineering Department, Irrigation and Flood Control Department, and Agriculture Department. As per the annexures to the advertisement, a total of 17 posts were earmarked for the Open Merit category. The prescribed minimum qualification for eligibility was a two-year Draftsman Training Course Certificate/Diploma from a Government-recognized institute.

c) Petitioner No.1 is qualified with 10+2 and has successfully completed a two-year ITI Draftsman Civil course from Doon Public Industrial Training Institute, having undergone training from August 2006 to July 2008. Petitioner No.2 also possesses 10+2 qualification and a two-year ITI Draftsman Civil certificate obtained from Choudhary Charan Singh Memorial Centre, Dehradun. Both petitioners applied pursuant to the advertisement and were found eligible by the respondent Board. They were accordingly shortlisted and called for interview, having secured comparatively high academic and diploma weightage.

d) It is the specific case of the petitioners that they performed satisfactorily during the viva-voce and had legitimate expectation of selection, particularly in view of their higher diploma weightage as refle