By means of the present writ petition, the petitioners herein (three in number) seek for quashing of the result published by the U.P. Sub-ordinate Services Selection Commission on 27.11.2019, pursuant to the advertisement No.15(3)/2016 and prepare fresh result from amongst the eligible candidates who possessed the requisite qualifications mentioned in the said advertisement.
Further prayer is for quashing of the communication dated 22.09.2020 sent by the Secretary, U.P. Sub-ordinate Services Selection Commission, Lucknow to the Chief Engineer (Mechanical), Irrigation and Water Resources Department, UP.
The contention of learned counsel for the petitioners is that the private respondents nos.- 7 to 23 have been selected wrongly by treating them eligible/qualified for the post of Tube-well Operator whereas no equivalent qualification was mentioned in the advertisement, which was issued in the year 2016 wherein the last date of submission of the application form was 01.08.2016.
Further submission is that the candidates having other than the qualifications mentioned in the advertisement were found ineligible by the Commission and, therefore, the name of the petitioners were placed in a provisional select list declared on 13.09.2019 and they had been called for document verification. However, the petitioners had been excluded from the final select list published on 27.11.2019.
Submission is that the Commission has no authority to change the qualification or to include any other qualification as equivalent to the advertised qualification after making selection. Reliance has been placed on the decisions of the Apex Court in the cases of Zonal Manager, Bank of India, Zonal Office, Kochi vs. Aarya K. Babu decided on 08.08.2019 and Tej Prakash Pathak & others vs. Rajasthan High Court & others reported in 2013 (4) SCC 540 to submit that the recruitment based on the subsequent notification making qualification possessed by the candidates equivalent to requisite qualification is erroneous. Rules of the game cannot be changed.
On a pointed query made by the Court as to how the petitioners can maintain the present writ petition after almost a period of one year from the date of declaration of the final select list dated 27.11.2029, learned counsel for the petitioners states that the fact that some candidates who did not possess requisite qualification on the last date of the submission of the application form had been held qualified and had been included in the select list, came to the knowledge of the petitioners when he laid his hands on the communication dated 22.09.2020, appended as Annexure-'13' to the writ petition.
A perusal of the communication dated 22.09.2020 shows that the Selection Commission in its meeting held on 02.11.2019 with the subject experts of ITI had cleared the doubts and resolved to treat certain qualifications as equivalent to the qualifications notified in the advertisement. For example, it may be noted in para-'3' of the said communication that there was no trade in the name of 'Electrical Wireman' in ITI rather 'Electrical' & 'Wireman' were two different trades. It was, thus, resolved that the candidates possessing both "Electrical" & "Wireman" trade certificates of ITI would be treated as eligible for the post of Tubewell Operator. A further perusal of the advertisement-in-question shows that one of the eligiblity qualification mentioned therein is certificate in 'Electrical Wireman' trade. The trade certificate of three petitioners herein shows that they possessed certificates of trade "Wireman" & "Electrician" separately. They are also not possessing the qualification of "Electrical Wireman" which as per the communication dated 22.09.2020 are two separate courses/trades in the ITI. It, thus, appears that a conscious decision was taken to assess the eligibility of the candidates for selection to the post-in-question.
After verification of the testimonials of the selected candidates, whose names were mentioned in the final select list dated 27.11.2019, recommendation was sent by the Commission. It appears that on some objections raised by the Chief Engineer, (Mechanical), Irrigation and Water Resources Department, UP Lucknow, clarification was given by the letter dated 22.09.2020 by the Secretary of the UP Sub-ordinate Services Selection Commission, which cannot be subjected to challenge.
The prayer in the writ petition is only to cancel the result dated 27.11.2019 and prepare a fresh result of the Selection as per the requisite qualification mentioned in the advertisement.
There is no challenge to the appointment of the selected candidates as ineligible candidates who have been arrayed as respondent nos. 7 to 23 in the writ petition nor there is any detail as to how they were ineligible.
Even otherwise, this Court does not find any justification to re-open the issue to examine the validity of the selection finalised on 27.11.2019, at the instance of the petitioners who had acquisced with the results of Selection. The decision of the Apex Court relied upon by the petitioners is of no help to them.
The present writ petition suffers from unexplained laches on the part of the petitioners and is, accordingly, dismissed.
Order Date :- 12.2.2021 P Kesari