C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA, CHANDIGARH C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) Date of Decision: Aug. 9, 2011 Mrs. Charanjit Kaur and others ......................... Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others .......................... Respondents Coram: Hon'ble Ms. Justice Ritu Bahri 1.To be referred to the Reporters or not? 2. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? Present: Mr. D.S.Patwalia, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr. Praveen Chander Goyal, Addl. A.G.Punjab. ... RITU BAHRI, J. The petitioners are seeking appointment to the post of Staff Nurse pursuant to advertisement of March 1997. As per the advertisement in March 1997, 60 posts of Staff Nurses were advertised. Thereafter, another advertisement was issued in the month of January 1998 wherein another 210 posts were advertised including the C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] earlier 60 posts advertised in March 1997. The eligibility condition for appointment to the post of Staff Nurse was that a candidate should have a minimum qualification of Matric or its equivalent/Diploma in Punjab Nurses Registration Council in 'A' Division Registered Nurse or passed registered B.Sc. Nursing in Punjab Nurses Registration Council. The writ petition was admitted on 20.5.2002. A C.M. No. 15331 of 2009 has been filed on behalf of petitioner No.1-Charanjit Kaur that as per the information received under the RTI Act, she is entitled to be appointed as Staff Nurse. As per the information received under the RTI Act the last person appointed has merit marks of 64.25. The petitioner has 64.5 merit marks as per Annexure A3. There are other candidates who had more marks as the petitioner but the petitioner being senior in age has a right to be appointed as per merit. Petitioner had applied against the Scheduled Caste category. On notice of the application, reply has been filed on 23.9.2010 by Shri Daljeet Singh, PCS, Secretary, Subordinate Services Selection Board Punjab. The following criteria (R-I) for selection of candidates for the post of Staff Nurse has been adopted:- Total marks for selection on the basis of interview 100 A Marks allotted for Educational Qualification and Experience 75 C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] B Marks allotted for Interview 25 2. Marks allotted for Educational Qualifications Minimum qualifications laid down on which applications are invited. Matric 25 1st Division 25 marks 2nd Division 23 marks 3rd Division 20 marks b) Diploma 1st Division 30 marks 2nd Division 28 marks 3rd Division 26 marks (2)HIGHER QUALIFICATIONS 5 a) B.Sc. Nursing 1st Division 30+5 2nd Division 28+4 3rd Division 26+3 b) M.Sc./M.A. 1st Division 4 2nd Division 3 3rd Division c) B.Sc./B.A. 1st Division 3 2nd Division 2 3rd Division d) 10+2/Higher Secondary 1st Division 2 2nd Division 1 3rd Division e) A.N.M. 2 C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] f) Any other qualification 1 Note: In case the candidate is M.Sc./M.A. she will be given on the basis of her M.Sc./M.A. Qualification and basis of his qualifications BA Part-1 etc. Similarly, a candidate who is B.A. will be given marks of his B.A. Qualification only. 3. EXPERIENCE Maximum marks for experience will be: 5 6 months to one year 1 1 year to two years 2 Two years to four years 3 Four years to eight years 4 above eight years 5 (Experience as ANM will be counted half of the period served) 4. SPORTS 5 a) International level 5 for winner b) National level 4 for winner c) State level 3 for winner 5 . N.C.C. 3 C.Certificate 3 B.Certificate 2 A.Certificate 1 6. N.S.S. 2 One camp 1 Two or more 2 The interview marks of the Board will be 25 and the system for awarding the marks have already been approved in he for of General Criteria for all posts separately.” C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] After following the selection criteria, Charanjit Kaur was granted 64.5 marks. The last candidate in the General category had got 71 marks and in Scheduled Caste category 64.25 marks. Petitioners No. 2 and 3, who had made applications in the General category, were below in merit, therefore, their name could not be recommended for appointment. As far as petitioner No.1 is concerned who is belonging to Scheduled Caste category, even though she has got 64.5 marks but on verification of her Experience Certificate (Annexure R-3) it was found that the same was not issued by the competent authority. Petitioner was granted 4 marks for experience. Since the Certificate was not found to be issued by the competent authority, 4 marks were reduced and her marks came to 60.5. She became lower in merit. Dr. Dharampal was posted as Senior Medical Incharge, Civil Hospital, Khanna, at that time. As per the information from the S.M.O. dated 11.6.2010 (Annexure R-III)(T) the Experience Certificate produced by the petitioner-Charanjit Kaur was not duly signed by the competent officer. The State counsel was directed to make available the records in the Court. The original records were produced by Shri Joginder Singh, Senior Assistant, S.S.Board and a direction was given to the S.M.O. to file an affidavit. In C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] the affidavit filed by the S.M.O. On 13.7.2011, it has been mentioned that the Certificate which was attached with the application form of experience was not signed by the competent authority, the S.M.O. In pursuance to the Court directions, an additional affidavit of Dr. Faqir Chand, Senior Medical Officer Incharge, Civil Hospital, Khanna, was filed on 3.8.2011 with regard to the issuance of Experience Certificate of the petitioner regarding salary etc. As per this affidavit, petitioner No.1 was appointed at Civil Hospital Khanna as Multi Purpose Health Worker (Female) but she was assigned the duty of Staff Nurse w.e.f. 12.6.1996 to 31.10.2007. The salary of this period was in the pay scale of Multipurpose Health Worker (Female) i.e. basic pay of `4140/- with regular annual increments and allowances. It has been reiterated that the Experience Certificate attached by the petitioner with her application was not issued by the competent authority of Civil Hospital Khanna. After hearing the counsel for the parties and going through the entire file, it is clear that the following criteria has been followed for giving marks for experience:- “3. EXPERIENCE Maximum marks for experience will be: 5 6 months to one year 1 C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] 1 year to two years 2 Two years to four years 3 Four years to eight years 4 above eight years 5 (Experience as ANM will be counted half of the period served)”. The precise case of the respondents is that the petitioner had been wrongly granted 4 marks at the time of selection for experience. The petitioner had got 64.5 marks as per merit (Annexure A3). After deleting 4 marks, her merit came down to 60.5. She became lower in merit to the last candidate in Scheduled Caste category who had got 64.25 marks. She had drawn the salary against the post of Staff Nurse while working as Multipurpose Health Worker (Female) with effect from 12.6.1996 to 31.10.2007 i.e. almost 11 years. For all intents and purposes as per the affidavit given on 3.8.2011 Charanjit Kaur has worked for 11 years as Multipurpose Health Worker (Female) and was paid the basic pay of `4140/- with regular annual increments and allowances. She was assigned the duty of Staff Nurse but she was paid the salary of Multipurpose Health Worker. Applying the criteria at Annexure R-1 she was rightly given 4 marks for her experience. Even if the SMO Incharge, at that C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] time, Dr. Kulwant Singh had denied his signatures on the Experience Certificate of the petitioner the fact remains that she had been paid salary for 11 years could have been verified. This fact has been admitted by way of filing additional affidavit dated 3.8.2011. The petitioner has served for 11 years as Multipurpose Health Worker (Female). The selection was finalized in the year 2002 and as per the additional affidavit the experience of petitioner from 1996 to 2002 comes to about 6 years. Petitioner having worked as Staff Nurse for 6 years could not be denied 4 marks which were given to her at the time of selection taking her marks to be 64.5. While filing the reply the S.S.Board has miserably failed to justify as to how 4 marks given to her in experience could be deleted bringing down her merit to 60.5 marks. In the additional affidavit filed on 3.8.2011 it has been admitted that petitioner has been working as Multipurpose Health Worker and performing the duties of a Staff Nurse from 1996 to 2007 continuously. The fact that the S.M.O. concerned did not remember having signed the Experience Certificate will not matter. 4 marks have been wrongly deleted bringing down the merit of the petitioner to 60.05 was factually wrong. Petitioner was entitled to these 4 marks of experience which were given to her initially taking her merit to be 64.5. She is higher in merit than the last candidate of Scheduled Caste category who had secured C.W.P. No. 7874 of 2002 (O&M) [ Page numbers ] 64.25 marks. The writ petition is being allowed by giving a direction to the respondents to reconsider the question whether experience of the petitioner as per the affidavit filed on 3.8.2011 could be treated for allotting 4 marks as per the selection criteria for appointment to the post of Staff Nurse pursuant to the advertisement of March 1997. No order as to costs. 9.8.2011 ( RITU BAHRI ) Rupi JUDGE