IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 861 of 2011 Date of decision: 05.08.2011 Sushil Kumar and others ...Petitioners Versus State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH Present: Mr. Nonish Kumar, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. Sunil Nehra, DAG, Haryana for the State. Mr. H.N. Mehtani, Advocate for respondent No. 2. RANJIT SINGH J. This order will dispose of three Civil Writ Petitions i.e. 861 of 2011 (Sushil Kumar and others versus State of Haryana and others), 1051 of 2011 (Manjeet Singh verus State of Haryana and others) and 2162 of 2011 (Mehar Singh versus State of Haryana and others). The facts are being taken from Civil Writ Petition No. 861 of 2011. Disclosing that the State of Haryana was carved out in the year 1966 and The Haryana Official Language Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') was enacted by the State, the petitioners have made a grievance against the Haryana Public Service Commission for holding a screening test of teachers in English language. Reference is made to Section 3 of the Act , where Hindi has been given status of official language. Haryana Public Service Commission had invited application for the post of Lecturer (School Cadre) for conducting Civil Writ Petition No. 861 of 2011 -2- School Teacher Eligibility Test (STET). The question paper of examination was also conducted in Hindi and English medium. STET is one of the criteria for applying for the post of Lecturer (School Cadre). The screening test was conducted on 19.12.2010. The petitioners would state that they were surprised to see the question paper of screening test only in English language and the terminology used in question paper was very difficult to understand as they have studied the subject, Political Science, in Hindi being a Hindi medium students through out. They claim that the petitioners are belonging to rural area and found it difficult to cope up with the paper set up in English language. Accordingly, they had approached this Court seeking quashing of this screening test, whereby they have not been found suitable for appearing in the selection process. In the reply filed, the Commission has disclosed that the Commission had held the screening test in English language for shortlisting of the candidates for the selection to the posts of Lecturers in the subject of Political Science. The petitioners had duly participated in this test and, having found themselves not qualified, would be estopped from challenging the action of the respondents in conducting the screening test in English medium. It is also disclosed that in exercise of powers conferred under Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 of the Act, the Governor of Haryana has issued notification dated 14.01.2010 in the official gazette granting exemption from this provision of the Act regarding use of Hindi language in all examination works of the Haryana Public Service Commission including setting up question papers meant for screening test and written examination as applicable to the various posts from time to Civil Writ Petition No. 861 of 2011 -3- time except in Hindi and vernacular papers for a period of three years from the date of issuance of this notification. Copy of this notification has been annexed with the reply as Annexure R-1. Counsel for the respondents would plead that there is no illegality in the action of the Commission in setting up the screening test in English language. Counsel appearing for the petitioners in these cases would submit that they learnt about the screening test being conducted in English language only when they appeared at the time of screening test. The petitioners submit that if they had known about it earlier, they would have approached the Court at that stage. The petitioners, accordingly, contests the ground raised by the respondents that the petitioners had participated in the test and so this cannot be held against them. Be that as it may, the fact that there is a notification exempting the Haryana Public Service Commission for conducting the test including the screening test in Hindi language, the action on the part of the respondents cannot be found to be illegal and arbitrary on the ground that Hindi has been declared as official language under Section 3 of the Act. The petitioners have not challenged the vires of this notification, despite the fact that the copy thereof is annexed with the petition. In this background, no relief can be granted to the petitioners. The writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed. August 05, 2011 (RANJIT SINGH) rts JUDGE