Waiting list candidate entitled to appointment for vacancy arising during validity period despite expiry plea, especially with judicial post reservation.

ORDER

Per: - Rajinder Singh Dogra, Judicial Member

1. The SWP No.2626/2019 was transferred from the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and was registered as T.A No. 684/2020 by the Registry of this Tribunal.

2. The present matter was filed before the Hon’ble High Court seeking following relief: - It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that this Hon'ble Court may be pleased to:

i) Allow this writ petition of the petitioner.

ii) Issue Writ in the nature of Certiorari seeking quashment of impugned Government Order No277-PWR&B of 2019 dated 11-06-2019 issued by respondent No.1 whereby the case of the petitioner for appointment to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II has been rejected.

iii) Issue Writ in the nature of Mandamus commanding the respondent authorities to accord consideration in favour of the petitioner for appointment to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II, keeping in view the vacancy arisen on account of non joining of one of the selected candidate.

iv) Issue Writ in the nature of Mandamus commanding the respondents to reconsider the case of the petitioner afresh

v) Pass such other appropriate order as facts of the case demand and this Hon'ble Court may deem just and proper in favour of the petitioner.

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. 2626/2019, which was initially instituted before the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu & Kashmir at Jammu and, upon transfer of jurisdiction relating to service matters, came to be transferred and registered as T.A. No. 684/2020 before this Tribunal b) The applicant, Amit Gupta, claims consideration for appointment to the post of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II in the Public Works (R&B) Department, on the basis of his position in the waiting list and alleged availability of vacancies arising due to non-joining of selected candidates.

c) Pursuant to Advertisement Notification No. 08 of 2010 dated 24.12.2010, issued by the J&K Service Selection Board, applications were invited for filling up 357 posts of Junior Engineer (Civil) Grade-II (State Cadre), distributed across various categories including Open Merit. The prescribed eligibility was three years Diploma in Civil Engineering or Degree in Civil Engineering/AMIE, and the selection criteria comprised weightage to academic qualification, higher qualification, and viva-voce.

d) The applicant, being eligible, participated in the selection process and was interviewed on 08.07.2011. Upon completion of the selection process, a final select list along with a waiting list was issued. The applicant was placed at Serial No. 5 in the waiting list under the Open Merit category.

e) Based on the recommendations of the Service Selection Board, the Government accorded sanction to the select list and issued appointment orders vide Government Order No. 52-PW(R&B) of 2012 dated 31.01.2012. The appointees were required to report for duty within a stipulated period of 21 days.

f) Subsequently, it came to the notice of the department that certain selected candidates had failed to join within the prescribed period. In this regard, communications were received from the Chief Engineer, PW(R&B), indicating that several candidates, including one Mehdi Hassan under the Open Merit category, had not reported for duty within the stipulated time.

g) In view of the non-joining of some candidates, the department operated the waiting list and issued appointment orders in favour of three candidates next in order of merit vide Government Order No. 409-PW(R&B) of 2012 dated 04.09.2012. Afte