IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.20788 of 2006 (O&M) Date of Decision : February 10, 2010. Rekha Rani .....Petitioner versus State of Punjab and others .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.P.S.Khurana, Advocate, for the petitioner. Ms.Charu Tuli, Sr.DAG, Punjab. Mr.S.S.Narula, Advocate, for respondent No.6. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- ORDER Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner seeks a writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing of the selection and consequential appointments of respondent Nos.3 to 6 to the posts of Head Mistresses (Female) in General Category. She also seeks a mandamus to direct the official respondents to appoint her on the above-mentioned post, allegedly being higher in merit. Notice of motion was issued and pursuant thereto, the official respondents as well as respondent No.6 have filed their respective reply- affidavits. Vide advertisement No.1/October, 2006 (Annexure P-1), applications for the posts of Headmasters/Headmistresses were invited. C.W.P.No .20788 of 2006 (O&M) 2 The last date to submit the applications was 8.11.2006. In terms of the advertisement, the candidates were requited to possess academic qualification of M.A./M.Sc. with M.Ed. with six years' experience or M.A./M.Sc. with B.T./B.Ed. with seven years' experience and/or B.A./B.Sc./B.Com with B.T./B.Ed. with eight years' experience. The petitioner, who possesses academic qualification of M.A./B.Ed., also applied in response to the afore-stated advertisement. She was obviously required to possess 7 years' requisite experience to be eligible for the advertised posts. While the petitioner asserts that she possesses more than 7 years experience of the desired nature, the plea taken by the official respondents is that the experience certificates appended by her alongwith the application form do not show her 7 years' experience. The petitioner has thereafter filed rejoinder appending four experience certificates (Annexures P-6 to P-9). In response thereto, the official respondents have also filed an additional affidavit of Smt.Neelam Bhagat, Deputy Director (School Administration), Office of Director of Public Instructions (Secondary Education), Punjab, which is taken on record. In relation to the experience certificates now relied upon by the petitioner, the respondents in their afore-stated additional affidavit have asserted as follows:- “That the petitioner has attached four experience certificates Annexures P-6, P-7, P-8 and P-9, along with present Civil Miscellaneous. A detail of which is given below:- C.W.P.No .20788 of 2006 (O&M) 3 Sr. No. Name of the Institution Period Remarks 1 Army School Military Station, Fazlika (Annexure P-6). 8-9-1999 to till date meaning thereby 30.4.2000 (7 months 22 days) - - - 2 Shri Jain Elementary Primary School, Fazilka (Annexure P-7) 1.5.2000 to 17.10.2000. As per the report of District Education Officer (SE), Ferozepur, the service record of Rekha Rani daughter of Sh. Raj Kumar is not available in the School record. Moreover, the said school is Privately Aided School with effect from 30.11.1967. 3 D.A.V.Senior Secondary School, Fazilka (Annexure P-8 & P-9) 18.10.2000 to 11.11.2006 6 years and 23 days. - - - 4 Total experience 6 years 8 months 15 days. The controversy, thus, stands shortened and confined to the limited issue as to whether or not the petitioner served in Shri Jain Elementary Primary School, Fazlika w.e.f. 1.5.2000 to 17.10.2000 as claimed vide Certificate Annexure P-7. Suffice it to observe that if the petitioner can prove the genuineness of the afore-mentioned experience, her total experience increases more than 7 years making her eligible for the post in question. Otherwise, her total experience remains about 6 years, 8 months and 15 days as calculated above by the respondents. There appears to be no serious dispute that in case the petitioner is held having 7 years experience, she would be above the C.W.P.No .20788 of 2006 (O&M) 4 private respondents in overall merit and in that event, she would also be entitled for her appointment as Headmistress. At the same time, the benefit of experience certificate (Annexure P-7) cannot be extended to the petitioner unless it is proved to be genuine to the satisfaction of the competent authority. The writ petition is accordingly disposed of with a direction to the District Education Officer (S.E.), Ferozepur to hold a fact finding enquiry, giving an opportunity to the petitioner to produce the relevant material on record to prove the genuineness of the experience certificate (Annexure P-7) relied upon by her. If the official respondents are satisfied that the said experience certificate is correct and based upon record, the petitioner shall be treated eligible for the subject post and after determining her merit and the concequential action of her appointment shall also be taken. The official respondents will complete the fact finding enqiry as early as possible, preferably within a period of 2 months from the date of receiving a certified copy of this order. Disposed of. Dasti. 10-02-2010 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE