CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 1 }: IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH DATE OF DECISION: MARCH 23 ,2011 Ex-Sergeant Sankar Maiti and others .....Petitioners VERSUS Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Oriental Bank of Commerce, New Delhi and others ....Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RANJIT SINGH 1. Whether Reporters of local papers may be allowed to see the judgement? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? PRESENT: Mr. Navdeep Singh, Advocate, for the petitioners. Mr. Kanwaljit Singh, Sr.Advocate with Ms. Gurmeet Kaur, Advocate, for respondent Nos.1 and 2. Ms. Anjali Kukkar, Advocate. **** RANJIT SINGH, J. The petitioner-exservicemen have approached this Court through the present writ petition to make a grievance against the action of the respondent-Bank in shifting the advertised vacancies for ex-servicemen to general and, thus, depriving them of their right to seek appointment in the reserved quota of ex-servicemen. 14.5% of the total Group C posts are reserved for ex- CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 2 }: servicemen, as per the guidelines issued by the Centre Government, copy of which is annexed as Annexure A-1. Respondent-Oriental Bank of Commerce had advertised 177 posts of Clerks under a State-wise recruitment process in October 2009 to be recruited from the State of Punjab. 26 posts were reserved for ex-servicemen (for short, “ESM”) horizontally out of the total posts advertised. The petitioners were the applicants and appeared in the written examination conducted on 27.12.2009. All the petitioners were successful. In fact, 138 candidates were successful in the written examination for 26 posts reserved for ESM. The petitioners were called for interview, which was basically to check their testimonials. When the final result was declined, all the 26 vacancies meant for ESM were found to have been transferred to other categories and no selection was made from amongst ESM. Pleading that the Bank had violated the Government guidelines for making reservation for 14.5% posts for ESM, the petitioners have filed the present petition. The Bank, however, will join issue with the petitioners and even would raise plea of jurisdiction of this Court to entertain the petition. Reference is made to Clause 8(c) to urge that the dispute is subject to sole jurisdiction of Courts situated at N.C.T., Delhi. It is then pointed out that selection process is over and the candidates have joined and the petitioner having participated and remaining unsuccessful can not question the selection. On merits, it is submitted that selection is based on merit-cum-suitability and in this regard, reference is made to the guidelines contained in a communication dated 16.2.1982, which CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 3 }: regulates the method of selection. Plea is that identified posts of ESM are to be filled on the basis of general standard to fill all vacancies reserved and no relaxation is permissible, which would affect the level of performance by ESM in the banking industry. Plea blatantly made is that candidates having higher rank in general category can not be sacrificed for candidates securing low marks falling in horizontal category as it affects the level of performance by such candidates. It is pointed out that last candidate selected in the general category secured 177 marks out of 235 and ESM had secured only 98 to 119 marks and accordingly they could not be selected. In fact, a similar issue came up for consideration in respect of the same Bank before this Court in Civil Writ Petition No.16961 of 2009 (Dayal Chand Vs. Oriental Bank of Commerce and others), decided on 3.3.2011. Same was the stand taken by the respondent-Bank in this case as well. After considering the rival contentions, this Court allowed the writ petition. Rather, somewhat different stand was taken in that case to say that the ESM-petitioner in the said petition had not achieved the minimum cut of marks fixed for selection. That is not the plea raised in the present writ petition. After considering the respective pleas, the Court observed that once the reservation is made for particular category, then the person competing in that category will have to be assessed on the basis of his merit and selection accordingly made, depending upon number of vacancies available in that reserved category. The directions accordingly were issued to the respondent-Bank to consider the CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 4 }: claim of the petitioner for appointment on the basis of his selection and if he came into merit amongst the reserved category of ESM on the basis of marks obtained by him, then to offer him appointment. In the case of Dayal Chand (supra), reference made to Para 4.8 (vii) under the heading “lower standard of selection”, which was relied upon was also referred and dealt with in the following manner:- “On one of the dates, during the course of arguments, the counsel for the respondents had relied upon compendium of instructions issued by the Government of India, which were statedly followed while granting reservation to ex- servicemen. In this regard, counsel for the respondents has referred to Chapter IV relating to recruitment of Subordinate Staff (Reserved). Reference is made to Para 4.8 (vii) under the heading `lower standard of selection'. It is stated that in the case of direct recruitment, if sufficient number of candidates belonging to ex-servicemen are not available on the basis of general standard to fill all the vacancies reserved for them, candidates belonging to category of ex-servicemen may be selected under a relaxed standard of selection to make up the deficiency in the reserved quota subject to the condition that such relaxation will not affect the level of performance of such candidates. This clause rather is apparently making a provision for selecting ex-servicemen under relaxed standard to make up deficiency. This clause can not be CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 5 }: read to nullify the appointment of reserved category of ex- servicemen. Out of 11 posts reserved for ex-servicemen, no candidate was selected. If reserved category candidates are to be appointed on the same standard as that of general category, then reservation would become redundant. It is noticed that scheduled caste and backward class candidates with lesser marks have been appointed. That being so, how could appointment for reserved category of ex-serviceman be treated differently to insist on same standard as of general category for appointment. The petitioner was not considered because he had not come up to the general standard. The respondents could very well relax the standard of selection to make up the deficiency in the reserved quota of ex-servicemen. It is also not the case pleaded by the respondents that such relaxation would have effected the level of performance of such candidate. Para 4.3 of this compendium clearly provides that vacancies in clerical cadre will be filled up by the respective Banks in terms of the guidelines issued by the Government of India from time to time. The selection is to be based on written test. Accordingly, the justification given by the respondents in not selecting the petitioner may not legally tenable.” There is, thus, merit in the claim made in the petition. The writ petition is allowed. Directions are accordingly issued to the respondents to consider the claim of the petitioners for CIVIL WRIT PETITION NO.13840 OF 2010 :{ 6 }: appointment on the basis of their selection if they come into the merit amongst the reserved category of ESM on the basis of marks obtained by them. March 23,2011 (RANJIT SINGH ) khurmi JUDGE