FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4908 OF 2010 Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 1 Mr. F.R. Tandale, Advocate for the petitioner Mr. K.G. Patil, AGP for the respondents. CORAM :- B.R. GAVAI & R.M. BORDE, JJ. DATE :- 7th December, 2010. PER COURT :- 1] By way of present petition, the petitioner challenges the constitutional validity of the Govt. Resolution dated 23rd April, 2008, vide which a cut off date has been prescribed by the State Government as 22nd August, 2005, and thereby granting relaxation to the condition of restricting the compassionate appointments to 5 % of the vacancies. 2] Shri Tandale, learned counsel for the petitioner submits that the petitioner has been wait listed on the compassionate ground in the year 2005 and due to the cut off date of 22nd August, 2005, the petitioner has been denied the benefit of the Govt. Resolution dated 23rd April, 2008. Relying on the judgment of the Apex Court in the Case of “ State of Himachal Pradesh Vs. Anjana Devi and others“ reported in AIR 2009 SC 2229, the learned counsel submits that the cut off date cannot be made applicable retrospectively. The learned Counsel, therefore, submits that the cut off date, at the most, could have FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4908 OF 2010 Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 2 been w.e.f. 23rd April, 2008, on which date the impugned Govt. Resolution has been notified. 3] By now, it is a settled principle of law that prescribing a cut off date is permissible. The only requirement is that the cut off date which is sought to be prescribed should not be prescribed in an arbitrary or irrational manner. 4] In so far as the judgment, relied upon by the learned counsel for the petitioner is concerned, the said judgment deals with a reservation for a technical posts, which was introduced w.e.f. 3rd May, 1983. Vide the rule, which was challenged, the Ex- servicemen who were appointed against non-reserved technical posts on or before 3rd May, 1983, were given an option to accept subsequently arising reserved vacancies. It is pertinent to note that the said reservation was prescribed by the rules framed in the year 1985. The Apex Court found that the persons appointed on or after 3rd May, 1983 and those prior to 3rd May, 1983 were not of the same class. The Apex Court further held that the respondent could have complained of discrimination only if the benefit had been introduced retrospectively by fixing a cut off date arbitrarily thereby dividing a single homogeneous class into two groups and subjecting them to different treatment. The apex court found that the choice of cut off date of 3.5.1983 for FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4908 OF 2010 Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 3 extension of the benefit by option, was not an arbitrary selection of cut off date, inasmuch as, the reservation was for technical services. 5] In the present case, for the first time, Vide Govt. Resolution dated 22nd August, 2005, outer limit for filling up the posts on compassionate ground. It could thus be seen that only after 22nd August, 2005, the provision of outer limit of 5 % posts for reservation on compassionate appointments has been prescribed. It can thus clearly be seen that the choice of cut off date of 22nd August, 2005, is logical and rational inasmuch as, that is the date on which for the first time the outer limit of 5 % of posts for appointment to be made on compassionate ground, has been made out. 6] In that view of the matter, we see no merit in the petition. The petition is, therefore, dismissed. [R.M. BORDE, J.] [B.R. GAVAI, J.] grt/- FARAD CONTINUATION SHEET NO. IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4908 OF 2010 Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Coram appearances, Court's Orders Court's or Judge's orders or directions and Registrar's orders. 4