C.W.P. No. 14956 of 2010 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. C.W.P. No. 14956 of 2010 Date of Decision : May 12, 2011 Kusum Lata w/o Vikramjit d/o Sh. Amar Singh .... PETITIONER Vs. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan Authority, Punjab and others ..... RESPONDENTS CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH * * * Present : Mr. Rajinder Sharma, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. APS Mann, Advocate, for respondents No. 1 and 2. None for respondent No. 3. * * * AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH, J. (ORAL) Prayer in the present writ petition is for issuance of an appointment letter to the petitioner who had applied for the post of Trained Graduate Teacher (Science) under the Scheduled Caste (Majbi) category reserved for them. It is not in dispute that the petitioner has submitted the application along with the certificate of the S.C. Category. On the basis of the merit prepared, the petitioner was placed at Sr. No. 8 whereas C.W.P. No. 14956 of 2010 2 respondent No. 3 was placed at Sr. No. 9. The petitioner attended the first counselling on 03.06.2010 and thereafter, she was called on 30.06.2010 for selecting the place of posting. At that stage also, no discrepancy was pointed out by the respondents with regard to the S.C. Certificate submitted by the petitioner. It was only on 12.07.2010 that the petitioner was telephonically informed that in the certificate appended by the petitioner, it was mentioned as Smt. Kusum Lata w/o Sh. Vikramjit. It was further stated that the case of the petitioner is to be determined on the basis of her parentage and, therefore, the certificate should have been as daughter of Sh. Amar Singh, which is the name of the father of the petitioner. The petitioner, accordingly, submitted the S.C. Certificate dated 01.07.2010 (Annexure P-9) along with her representation dated 14.07.2010 (Anneuxre P-7). The respondents considered the claim of the petitioner and rejected her candidature vide order dated 06.08.2010 (Annexure P-10) on the ground that earlier certificate, which was submitted by her, was incorrect and the certificate, which has now been produced by her, was beyond the last date of submission of the application form. Counsel for the petitioner contends that the claim of the petitioner is fully justified and it is not in dispute that the petitioner belongs to the S.C. Category and was higher in merit to respondent No. 3, who has been issued the appointment letter. He, therefore, contends that the error, which has been pointed out, was immediately rectified by the petitioner and, therefore, the claim of the petitioner could not have been rejected. On the other hand, counsel for respondents No. 1 and 2 submits that the last date of submission of the application was 28.01.2010. As the petitioner had submitted the correct S.C. Certificate, as per the requirement, beyond the last date of submission of the application form, the C.W.P. No. 14956 of 2010 3 candidature of the petitioner has rightly been cancelled by the respondents. I have heard the counsel for the parties and have gone through the records of the case. The facts, as stated above in the petition, are not in dispute. It is not in dispute that the petitioner had earlier also submitted a S.C. Certificate, which, according to the respondents, was not as per the prescribed norms but the factum that the petitioner belongs to S.C. Category is not disputed by the respondents. Merely because the S.C. Certificate, which has been issued to the petitioner was not in the form as was required by the respondents, would not be a ground good enough for cancelling her candidature. Respondent No. 3, who was next in order of merit to the petitioner, has been served but no one has put in appearance on her behalf before this Court. In this view of the matter, the present writ petition deserves to be allowed. Ordered accordingly. The order dated 06.08.2010 (Annexure P-10) is quashed. A further direction is issued to the respondents to give the appointment letter to the petitioner within a period of two weeks' from today. Copy of this order be given dasti under the signatures of the Court Secretary of this Court. (AUGUSTINE GEORGE MASIH ) May 12, 2011 JUDGE pj