CWP No.16859 of 2007 -1 - IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.16859 of 2007 Date of Decision: 21.5.2008 Nitika Garg ..Petitioner. Vs. State of Punjab and others ..Respondents. CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHTAB S.GILL HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR JAIN * * * Present: Mr.Mansur Ali, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr.P.C.Goyal, Sr.DAG Punjab for respondents No.1 to 3. * * * RAKESH KUMAR JAIN, J. The petitioner has prayed for a direction to the respondents to consider her for appointment as Social Studies Mistress on the ground of having higher merit than the last selected candidate. In brief, the facts as pleaded in the petition are that vide advertisement dated 2.10.2006, the Department of School Education, Punjab invited applications for recruitment of regular school teachers in various disciplines and categories. The petitioner, who is M.Com. /B.Ed. applied for the post of Mistress in the subject of Social Studies as per advertisement dated 2.10.2006 (Annexure P-1) in which both qualifications and mode of selection were provided, which is reproduced as under : CWP No.16859 of 2007 -2 - (i)“ Basic Qualification and professional Qualification:- Social Studies Master/Mistress : Graduation degree with subject combination as approved by Government from time to time with B.T. or B.Ed. Any two subjects from : History, Political Science, Economics, Geography, Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, Mass Communication, Philosophy, Statics, Environment Studies, Elective English or English Literature, Business Management, Business Administration, Commerce, Accountancy, Mathematics. OR Senior Basic Trained (including service of D.P.Ed. and B.P.Ed. as Master/Mistress with at least three years of actual teaching experience.” Mode of Selection:- “The recruitment shall be strictly made to respective categories only on merit, without a recruitment test or interview marks. Merit will be prepared by adding the percentage of marks obtained in basic minimum prescribed academic qualification and basic minimum prescribed professional qualification. Merit shall be computed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, a Scientific Society of Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Govt. of India (C-DAC).” The form of the petitioner was duly received in the office of respondent No.2 on 31.10.2006 and was scrutinized in the office of CWP No.16859 of 2007 -3 - respondent No.3. The petitioner had appeared in the office of respondent No.3 on 15.11.2006 for interview and produced all her original certificates. The petitioner had secured 71.8% in Graduation and 75.8% in B.Ed. However, when the result was declared on 26.11.2006 in the Daily newspaper `The Tribune', the name of the petitioner was conspicuously absent. The petitioner when learnt that the candidates lower in merit had been selected while she has been ignored, not only she approached the respondents to consider her name vide E mail dated 29.11.2006 but had also served a legal notice dated 15.1.2007. Subsequently, the State of Punjab issued a fresh advertisement dated 29.9.2007 in which the last selected candidate of Social Studies Mistress was having 73.375%. There was a note in the subsequent advertisement that the candidates who are having more marks, they should appear before the Local Office in Panjab University, Chandigarh. The petitioner had appeared before the Local Office and her form was again scrutinized where respondent No.3 himself calculated the percentage of petitioner as 73.80%. In spite of the same, the petitioner was not considered for appointment and was rejected. On notice of motion, respondents No.1 and 2 have filed written statement in which the only ground convassed for ignoring the claim of the petitioner was that she does not possess the requisite qualification as prescribed by the advertisement dated 27.10.2006 (Annexure P-1). It was alleged that for the purpose of Social Studies Master/Mistress, the candidate should possess B.T.or B.Ed with Graduation degree with subject combination as approved by Govt. from time to time. It was further alleged that the petitioner has not passed the examination in any two subjects out of the subjects namely History, Political, Science, Economics, Geography, CWP No.16859 of 2007 -4 - Public Administration, Psychology, Sociology, Mass Communication, Philosophy, Statistics, Environment Studies, English Elective or English Literature, Business Management, Business Administration, Commerce, Accountancy, Mathematics. The petitioner filed replication to the written statement filed by respondents No.1 and 2 in which she had categorically stated that she possessed the requisite qualification as in her Graduation she has passed combination of two subjects namely Economics and Accountancy. In order to demonstrate this fact, the petitioner has also placed on record Annexures P-12, P-13 and P-14, the result-cum-Details Marks Card of B.Com-I, II and III. Learned counsel for the petitioner has argued that subject of Accountancy is actually known as Financial Accountancy in B.Com.-I, Corporate Accounting in B.Com.-II and Cost Accounting and Management Accounting and Business Finance in B.Com.-III. Similarly Economics is known as Quantitative Techniques for Business in B.Com.-I, Bank and Foreign Trade Management and Business Economics in B.Com.II and Indian Economics Problems in B.Com.-III. Therefore, the petitioner has the combination of both subjects Economics and Accountancy as prescribed in the qualification and thus, the candidature of the petitioner has been illegally ignored/rejected by the respondents on the pretext that she does not possess the requisite qualification. Sh.P.C.Goyal, Sr.DAG Punjab has been fair enough to admit that the petitioner has the combination of subjects of Economics and Accountancy in her Graduation as described by the counsel for the petitioner and as also mentioned in para No.1 of the replication. CWP No.16859 of 2007 -5 - In view of the aforesaid admitted position, since the petitioner possesses the requisite qualification and has more merit than the last selected candidate, she is definitely entitled to be considered for appointment to the post of Social Studies Mistress. Consequently, the writ petition is allowed and the respondents are hereby directed to consider the petitioner for appointment as Social Studies Mistress and issue her appointment letter within a period of one month from the receipt of certified copy of this order. However, there shall be no order as to costs. (Rakesh Kumar Jain) Judge ( Mehtab S.Gill ) 21.5.2008 Judge Meenu