ORDER

Per: - Ram Mohan Johri, Administrative Member

1. The applicants have filed the present Original Application under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 seeking the following reliefs: -

a) quash the order bearing No.CEO/Rsi/legal/7243 dated 04/02/2020 passed by the respondent No.4 by virtue of which the Advertisement Notice No.01 Edu of 2014 dated 24/01/2014 for the posts of Class IV employees in District Cadre Reasi has been withdrawn abinitio.

b) direct the respondents to finalize the selection for the post of Class-IV in Education Department District Reasi as advertised vide Advertisement No.1 of 2014 dated 24/01/2014.

c) any other order which this Hon'ble Tribunal may deem fit and proper may also be passed in favour of the applicants and against the respondents.

2. The present Original Application has been filed by the applicants under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, seeking quashment of order bearing No. CEO/Rsi/legal/7243 dated 04.02.2020 passed by respondent No. 4, whereby Advertisement Notice No. 01 Edu of 2014 dated 24.01.2014, issued for filling up Class-IV posts in the Education Department, District Cadre Reasi, was withdrawn ab initio. The applicants have further sought a direction to the respondents to finalize the selection process for the post of Class-IV in the Education Department, District Reasi, pursuant to the said advertisement notice.

3. Briefly stated, the case of the applicants is that the School Education Department had initiated recruitment process for Class-IV posts in different districts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir. For that purpose, a Divisional Level Departmental Committee was constituted by the Department of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, headed by the Additional Law Secretary, and the said Committee fixed the criteria for selection, namely 50 points for marks obtained in matriculation on pro-rata basis, 10 points for 10+2 qualification and 40 points for interview/personality test, making a total of 100 points. It is pleaded that the said criteria was approved and adopted by the School Education Department for recruitment to Class-IV posts.

4. It is the further case of the applicants that District Level Selection Committees were constituted in various districts, headed by the respective Chief Education Officers, and similar advertisement notices were issued in several districts. Insofar as District Reasi is concerned, respondent No. 4 issued Advertisement Notice No. 01 Edu of 2014 dated 24.01.2014 inviting applications for recruitment to Class-IV posts in the District Cadre, Reasi. The applicants, though residents of District Jammu, claim that they belonged to the Scheduled Caste category and were eligible to apply for the posts in District Reasi in terms of the applicable policy. Accordingly, they submitted their applications along with requisite documents.

5. The applicants submit that their applications were scrutinized and they were shortlisted under the Scheduled Caste category. They were called for interview vide notification dated 26.08.2014 and participated in the interview held on 01.10.2014. According to the applicants, despite completion of the interview process, the respondents did not finalize the selection, whereas in other districts the selection process was completed and candidates were appointed. Feeling aggrieved by the inaction of the respondents, the applicants approached the Hon’ble High Court of Jammu and Kashmir by filing SWP No. 813/2016.

6. The Hon’ble High Court, vide order dated 21.04.2016, disposed of the writ petition with a direction to the respondents to finalize the selection for the post of Class-IV in the Education Department, District Reasi, pursuant to Advertisement Notice No. 01 of 2014, provided there was no impediment to finalization of the said selection. It was also observed that in case the department did not intend to make recruitment to the advertised posts for a