LPA 181/2022

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IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI

Judgment reserved on: 17.08.2022

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Judgment delivered on: 29.08.2022

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LPA 181/2022 and C.M. Nos. 12301/2022 & 12303/2022

PRIYANKA RANI

..... Appellant

Through:

Mr. Rajinder Pal Singh and Mr. Sahil

Goel, Advocates.

versus

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA & ANR.

..... Respondent

Through:

Mr. Anand Varma and Ms. Apoorva

Pandey, Advocates for respondent/

AIIMS.

Mr. R. K. Yadav, Sr. Govt. Counsel

with Mr. Mahesh Pal, Head Clerk for

respondent/ Dr. R.M.L. Hospital.

CORAM:

HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUBRAMONIUM PRASAD

J U D G M E N T

SATISH CHANDRA SHARMA, C.J.

1.

The present Letters Patent Appeal (“LPA”) has been preferred by the

Appellant under Clause 10 of Letters Patent against the Judgment and Order

dated 17.02.2022 passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.

(C.) No. 2614/2022 (“Impugned Order”). Vide the Impugned Order, the

2022:DHC:3292-DB

LPA 181/2022

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Writ Petition preferred by the Appellant herein, seeking appointment to the

post of ‘Nursing Officer’ has been dismissed.

2.

The Appellant through the present Appeal has prayed for setting aside

the Impugned Order passed by the learned Single Judge dated 17.02.2022,

thereby allowing the present LPA. The Appellant has also prayed for

accepting her Other Backward Castes (“OBC”) Non-Creamy Layer

(“NCL”) Certificate as valid for the purposes of recruitment, directing the

Respondents to issue an appointment and joining letter to the post of

Nursing Officer and to quash the Office Memorandum dated 11.01.2022

issued by the Respondents, by which her name was included in the list of

rejected candidates.

3.

The facts of the case reveal that the Respondent Nos. 1, 3 and 4 had

issued a Recruitment Notice No. 1/2019 for a large number of vacancies/

posts in the capacity of a ‘Nursing Officer’. As per Clause 9 of the

Recruitment Notice, it was stated that the candidates applying under OBC

Category are under an obligation to provide a caste certificate as per format

provided by the Department of Personnel and Training (“DoP&T”) vide

Office Memorandum No. 36036/2/2013-Estt.(Res) dated 30.05.2014 and the

caste certificate should be issued not earlier than a year from the last date of

online registration.

4.

The scheme of examination was made available vide Notice No.

72/2019 dated 23.08.2019 and applications were to be submitted from

01.08.2019 to 21.08.2019. The Appellant had applied for the post of Nursing

Officer under the category of OBC (NCL). The Appellant was allotted Roll

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LPA 181/2022

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No. 303272 vide online registration and she appeared in an online

examination which took place on 15.09.2019. The result was declared on

28.09.2019 and the Appellant obtained 119 marks, bearing 1138 rank.

5.

The Respondent Nos. 1 and 4 informed the Appellant vide email

communication dated 19.08.2021 that the second round of recruitments/

document verification would be carried out between 06.09.2021 and

17.09.2021. Pursuant to the E-mail dated 19.08.2021, the Appellant on

13.09.2021 submitted her OBC (NCL) caste certificate dated 12.09.2015

bearing

Certificate

No.

90500000020586 and

Certificate

No.

THE/SLP/2020/156 dated 21.08.2020 in the prescribed format along with

other requisite documents, as part of the document verification process. The

Appellant on 07.12.2021 also got her OBC (NCL) certificate renewed by the

concerned Magistrate bearing F. No. Non-Creamy/ The/ SLP/ 2021/ 744.

However, on 24.12.2021, the Appellant received a communication bearing

F.No. 5-80/ 2019/ RMLH/ NS/ 5955 from Deputy Director (Admn.) vide

email, wherein it was stated that certain discrepancies have been observed in

the OBC (NCL) category certificate submitted by the Appellant upon

scrutiny of her documents and she was being granted a final opportunity to

furnish a certificate in com