Civil Writ Petition No. 20575 of 2010 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 20575 of 2010 Date of decision:-03.08.2011 Rakesh Kumar ...Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present:- Mr. Kapil Kakkar, Advocate for the petitioner. Ms. Kavita Arora, AAG Punjab. RITU BAHRI J.(Oral) The petitioner had applied in pursuance to the advertisement dated 21.10.2006 for filling up 431 posts of Headmasters/Headmistresses in the grade of Rs.7000-10980. Out of which 44 posts were made for the Scheduled Castes (male) category. The candidates were required to possess a degree of any UGC Recognized University with B.Ed as per Annexure P-3). The petitioner belongs to Balmiki Caste, which has been recognized as Schedule Caste and he was working as Hindi Master in the Punjab Education Department since 10.05.1997. As per merit list (Annexure P-6) dated 21.11.2006, whereby four candidates were declared to have passed the written test with the last candidate having secured 59.93 marks. The petitioner states that he had secured 61.4 marks and he should have been given appointment. He approached this Court by way of filing the CWP No.3749 of 2010 which was disposed of with a direction to respondent No.1 to dispose of the representation dated 17.7.2009 by passing a speaking order. The claim of the petitioner has been rejected on 26.10.2010 on the Civil Writ Petition No. 20575 of 2010 -2- ground that as per the Schedule Caste (male) category merit list candidates had secured 61.681% marks and petitioner being lower in merit secured 61.04% marks is not eligible to be appointed. Petitioner did not appear in the second counselling, which was held on 25.8.2008. Therefore, he has no right to be consider for appointment. Counsel for the petitioner argued that the petitioner belongs to Mazbi/Balmiki Caste and he is to be considered as per his merit. In the first counselling (Annexure P-6) dated 21.11.2006, Charanjit Singh last candidate Male (S.C.-M) Head Master had secured 59.93 marks. The petitioner has secured 61.04% which are higher than Charanjit Singh. Ms. Kavita Arora, AAG Punjab could not dispute the factual position. In para 5 of the written statement this fact has not been denied. In view of the above facts, this writ petition is allowed and direction is given to the respondent to appoint the petitioner to the post of Headmaster with all consequential benefits within four weeks and with a cost of Rs.5000/-. August 03, 2011 ( RITU BAHRI ) Vijay Asija JUDGE