CWP No. 1227 of 2009 23.04.2009 Present: Ms. Seema Sood, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. R.K. Bawa, Advocate General with Mr. P.K. Sharma, Additional Advocate General and M/s J.K. Verma and P.M. Negi, Dy. Advocate Generals for the respondents. CMP No. 2229 of 2009 Allowed. CWP No.1227 of 2009 Heard and gone through the record. Grievance of the petitioner is that he is holding degree of Master in Economics and earlier he was eligible for appointment as lecturer in school cadre and that in fact once he had applied for appointment to the said post in the year 1999, but was not selected, on account of his being not as meritorious as the other candidates. From 1999 to 2005, no posts were advertised. In 2005, respondents changed the eligibility criteria, whereby in addition to qualification of master degree in the relevant subject, degree of B. Ed. has also been prescribed. Petitioner’s plea is that addition of qualification of B. Ed. to master degree is arbitrary and on account of this the petitioner has become ineligible to apply for the post, which has been advertised recently, vide advertisement, Annexure P-9. It is also the contention of the petitioner that he cannot now acquire B. Ed. qualification, because he is overage. We do not find any merit in the petitioner’s claim that a direction be given to the respondents to consider his claim for appointment as school cadre lecturer, ignoring the qualification of B. Ed/M. Ed., added in the year 2005, by amending the Rules. The reason is that the employer can always change the eligibility criteria, of course before the recruitment process starts. - 2 - CWP No.1227/2009 As regards the contention that the petitioner has become ineligible to take admission to B. Ed. or M. Ed. course because of his being overage, the petitioner may file a fresh petition as and when admissions to B. Ed./M. Ed. courses start and his application is rejected, on account of his being overage. In view of the above stated position, writ petition is dismissed being without merit. CMP No.2230 of 2009 Infructuous. ( R.B. Misra ), J. April 23, 2009(ss) ( Surjit Singh ), J