IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No. 9029 of 2007 Date of decision : April 22, 2008 Smt. Harinder Kaur ..... Petitioner Versus State of Punjab and Ors ..... Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.S. SARON. HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN. Present : Mr. Shashi Garg, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. K.S. Dadwal, Addl. A.G. Punjab for respondents No. 1, 2 and 5. Mr. T.P. Singh, Advocate for respondent No.4. Mr. V.K. Mahajan, Advocate for respondent No.6. *** S.S. SARON, J. (ORAL) The present petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India has been filed for seeking quashing of the orders dated 11.12.2006 (Annexure P-6) and 12.12.2006 (Annexure P- 7) passed by respondents No.2 and 3 respectively. A further prayer is made for directing the respondents to appoint the petitioner as Elementary Training Teacher (“ETT” - for short) in CWP No. 9029 of 2007 [2] Government Elementary School, Thali Kalan, Post Office Ghanouli, District Ropar. Learned counsel for the petitioner has contended that the petitioner was eligible for consideration for appointment as ETT in Primary Schools in the rural areas of Punjab. The respondent No.2 issued an advertisement dated 25.11.2006 (Annexure P-1) which provided eligibility criteria for selection. In terms of the criteria, it has inter alia been provided that eligible candidates from the villages served by the School would be considered in the first place. In case of non-availability, candidates from the adjoining villages or the adjoining wards of Municipal areas would be considered. Learned counsel for the petitioner further submits that the petitioner belongs to Village Thali Kalan, Post Office Ghanouli, District Ropar and therefore she was liable to be appointed as ETT in the said village on the basis of her merit and marks obtained. It is submitted that the transfer of respondent No.6 (Smt. Gurpreet Kaur) from District Hoshiarpur to Village Thali Kalan, District Ropar is illegal. In response, learned counsel for the State has submitted that the petitioner could not make it on merit. The cut off merit of the last general category candidate having qualifications of B.A., B.Ed was 150.28, whereas petitioner had 121.96 marks. It is also submitted that the merit lists of the selected candidates were prepared and displayed on the notice board. Therefore, the contention of the petitioner it is submitted is devoid of any merit. CWP No. 9029 of 2007 [3] We have given our thoughtful consideration to the contentions of the learned counsel for the parties. We are of the view that the criteria in the advertisement (Annexure P-1) providing for the selection procedure for recruitment to ETT was in the nature of giving preference to the eligible candidates of the same village served by the school. The criteria did not in any manner compromise on the merit of the selection process. It is well-known that for selection to posts, merit is the foremost criteria which is to be adhered to subject to the conditions of reservations etc. In the present case, the last candidate who was appointed as ETT with the qualification of B.A. B.Ed. secured 150.28 marks and the petitioner secured 121.96 marks. Therefore, we find nothing wrong with the petitioner being not appointed. As regards the transfer of respondent No.6 (Smt. Gurpreet Kaur), it may be noticed that her transfer has been made in accordance with the provisions of Rule 11 (2) of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Primary Teachers (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2006. The marriage of respondent No.6 (Smt. Gurpreet Kaur) was solemnized on 19.11.2006 with Gurinder Singh son of Sh. Jaswant Singh r/o Village Behrampur (Ladal), Post Office Malikpur, Tehsil and District Ropar. In terms of the said provisions, respondent No.6 (Smt. Gurpreet Kaur) has been appointed as Primary School Teacher at Village Thali Kalan, Block and District Ropar. In the circumstances, the transfer of respondent CWP No. 9029 of 2007 [4] No.6 (Smt. Gurpreet Kaur) as ETT Teacher from Village Bhungrani, Block and District Hoshiarpur to Village Thali Kalan, Block and District Ropar is in accordance with the statutory rules. Accordingly, we find no merit in the petition and the same is accordingly dismissed. (S.S. SARON) JUDGE (RAKESH KUMAR JAIN) JUDGE April 22, 2008 amit