THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE GHULAM MOHAMMED AND THE HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO --- WP No. 12024 of 2009 ORDER: The writ petitioner, a Member belonging to the Scheduled Tribe and unemployed instituted this writ petition seeking directions to the respondents for ensuring wider publicity whenever Employment notifications are taken out by them so as to secure the attention of the members of the Scheduled Tribes who essentially live in hamlets and thandas, which are far removed from the main stream society. The writ petitioner passed 9th class and he is a resident of a hamlet called “Veerlagadda Thanda”, Mallaram Gram Panchayat in Karimnagar District. The writ petitioner has asserted that Veerlagadda Thanda is located in a very interior backward area and there are 600 lambada families residing therein. It is further asserted that there is no newspaper service available in the Thanda and only eight persons have television sets at their homes. These are the reasons ascribed for the writ petitioner to have missed out noticing the Employment Notification No. 6/2009 which is got published on 2.5.2009 by the 1st respondent, the District and Sessions Judge, Karimnagar District inviting applications for the post of `Attenders’ in his unit. The writ petitioner has come to know of this notification on 16.6.2009, by which time the candidates who applied for pursuant to the notification have all been called to appear for the interview test. As was pointed out supra, since some of the posts are notified to be filled in by the candidates belonging to Scheduled Tribes, if only, appropriate steps are taken giving wider publicity to the Employment Notification, the chances of the information percolating to all those who are concerned would get brightened. Hence, instituted this writ petition. The learned District and Sessions Judge, Karimnagar and the High Court represented by its Registrar (General), the State of Andhra Pradesh represented by the Secretary to the Government (Law), are impleaded as respondents to this writ petition. Subsequently, pursuant to an order passed on 22.7.2009 in WPMP No. 19269 of 2009, the District Collector, Karimnagar, District Employment Officer, Karimnagar and District Public Relations Officer, Karimnagar are impleaded as respondents 4, 5 and 6 respectively. The 1st respondent has filed a detailed counter affidavit in the matter. Pursuant to the approval accorded by the High Court on its administrative side for filling up various vacancies in the cadre of Attenders/Office subordinates, the Employment Notification has been taken out on 2.5.2009 inviting applications from all eligible candidates. It was further pointed out that all the judicial officers in the district of Karimnagar have been requested to cause the said notification to be displayed on the notice board of the respective courts. Similarly, the District Collector, the District Employment Officer, the District Public Relations Officer have also been requested to cause the employment notification in question to be published on the notice boards of their respective offices. It was also further pointed out that all the learned District Judges in the State have also been requested to cause the notification in question to be displayed on the notice board of their respective courts. It was further asserted that prominent Telugu Daily newspapers have published the gist of the notification in their newspapers issued on 6.5.2009, thus, refuting the assertion of the writ petitioner that the employment notification in question has not received wider publicity. The 1st respondent had further asserted that as many as 2345 applications were scrutinized and found eligible to be issued call letters and accordingly call letters were all issued. It was further pointed out that 141 candidates belonging to scheduled tribes have responded to the notification by submitting their applications and three of those 141 applications are residents of Veerlagadda Thanda, where the writ petitioner is said to be residing. Therefore, the learned District Judge would assert that appropriate steps have been taken for securing wider publicity to the employment notification in question and no exception need be drawn thereto. The District Public Relations Officer has also filed a counter affidavit in the matter asserting that the Employment Notification has been displayed on the notice board of the District Information Centre where hundreds of readers would come daily to consult all English, Hindi, Urdu and Telugu News Papers and also the various notifications published on the notice board. It is also further asserted that within the limited means and capacity of the District Public Relations Officer, the Employment Notification in question has been ensured to receive appropriate response from those sections to whom it really matters. The writ petitioner has filed a reply affidavit pointing out that the three persons belonging to the scheduled tribes who are said to have submitted their applications pursuant to the notification in question and are not normally residing in the Thanda and on the other hand they are all residing at Karimnagar doing petty jobs and hence they could come to know of the contentions of the notification and hence the fact that the three persons from the same Thanda where the writ petitioner has been residing, have responded to the Notification need not be taken serious note of. The writ petitioner has also further disputed that `Surya’ and `Saakshi’ newspapers are not the leading newspapers and the leading newspapers like `Eenaadu, Andhra Jyothi and Vaartha’ have not carried out the employment notification in question. It is further pointed out that but for the inadequacy of publication, the response from the unemployed to the notification in question would have been far more encouraging instead of a mere 2345 candidates submitting their applications. We have given our anxious consideration to the submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner, who laid a great amount of stress upon the judgment rendered by the Supreme Court in Excise Superintendent, Malkapatnam, Krishna District v. K.B.N.Visweshwar Rao and others[1] in support of his contention that failure to give wide publicity to the employment notification would amount to grossly violating the fundamental rights guaranteed to the writ petitioner under Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution. Dealing with a question as to whether choice of selection of candidates for public employment should be confined only to those candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchange or should any such employment notification be thrown open for other interested candidates also to respond and thus compete along with the candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchange, the Supreme Court, in the aforementioned case, had pointed out that the principles of fair play, justice and equal opportunity could be advanced greatly if both the methods of securing candidates sponsored by the Employment Exchange as well as by way of open competition by giving wide publicity to the notification, are followed by the recruiting agencies. It was further pointed out that the mandatory requirement of notifying the Employment Exchange should be complied with, while at the same time prospective candidates should be given an opportunity for competing for public employment by securing publication of the notification over radio, television, employment news bulletins and newspapers. The Employment Notification dated 2.5.2009 has undoubtedly notified the District Employment Exchange. It was also published in two Telugu daily newspapers. It was also published on the notice boards of all the courts in the District and also on the notice boards of District Information Centre and that of the District Collector. The Information Centre, Karimnagar, where the notification has been displayed, is normally visited by a large number of unemployed young persons for the purposes of consulting various newspapers. It is therefore difficult to consider or construe that the employment notification in question has not been widely published. But, at the same time, we should bear in mind, the stark social reality that most of the members belonging to the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, who are otherwise eligible for competing to various posts in public employment, exclusively reserved to be filled in such members, reside in rural areas which are far removed from urban and semi urban centers and hence steps are needed to be taken for ensuring that the employment notifications should be so published to enable their attention to be caught thereto. It is well neigh impossible for ensuring every eligible person to come to know and become aware of the public employment notifications. But, at the same time, certain measures, which ensure such greater publicity, if adopted, would subserve the larger public interest by securing the attention of the potential candidates. The socially disadvantaged segments need to be encouraged to compete for public employment, as, such a measure will go a long way in their emancipation. Keeping this factor alone in mind, we propose to issue the following directions for compliance by all the District Courts in the State whenever such employment notifications are issued: (1) The District Court concerned will mark a copy of the employment notification to the District Social Welfare Officer, District Tribal Welfare Officer and the Officer-in-charge of the Backward Classes Welfare at the District level, with a request to ensure that the gist of the notification is published on the notice boards of all educational institutions/hostels run and managed under their control so that members belonging to scheduled castes/scheduled tribes and backward classes would respond in appropriate measure to the employment notifications. (2) The employment notification shall be marked to the District Public Relations Officer, with a request to him to publish the notification on the notice board attached to his office as well as the Information Centres located at various places in the District. This apart, the District Public Relations Officer should also be requested to release the gist of the notification as a `Press Release’ to both print and electronic media. (3) All the District Courts are also required to communicate the employment notification to the nearest `All India Radio Station’ with a request to the Director of the Radio Station concerned to broadcast the gist of the notification. (4) The District Employment Exchange as well as any other Employment Exchanges/sub-exchanges available in the District should all be notified of the employment notification. Candidates sponsored by such employment exchanges should all be sent call letters for attending to the selection process. (5) If the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha in the district concerned runs libraries, the employment notification be marked to such libraries for publication of the same on the notice boards of such libraries. These aforesaid measures should be adopted in all cases of employment notifications issued henceforth. Wherever the selection process has not reached the stage of commencing the interviers/viva voce test or written examination, pursuant to any notification issued earlier to this order, the same measures may be adopted according a further 15 days time to fresh applicants to respond. Candidates who have already applied need not be called upon to apply once again. In the instant case, the candidates who have applied as well as those who have been sponsored by the employment exchanges have all been issued call letters for attending the selection process. Therefore, we are not issuing any specific directions in the instant case. Further, we have noticed that the writ petitioner has got the name enrolled with the District Employment Exchange only on 16.6.2009, which is beyond the last date set for receipt of the applications and by which date the process of selection has also reached a stage of subjecting the candidates to the selection process. Hence, we do not propose to alter the said course now. For the aforesaid reasons, we direct the Registrar General of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh to appropriately guide all the District Judges in the State with reference to the employment notifications to be taken out by them. The writ petition is disposed of. No costs. --------------- knk 25.09.2009 [1] (1996) 6 SCC 216