In the High Court for the States of Punjab and Haryana, at Chandigarh. C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 Decided on Feb 06 ,2008 Varinder Pal Singh Sidhu -- Petitioner. vs. State of Punjab and others -- Respondents. AND C.W.P.No. 19118 of 2007 Decided on Feb 06 ,2008 Vikramjeet Singh -- 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.R.K.Chopra,Sr.Advocate,with Mr.Amit Chopra,Advocate,for the petitioners. Mr.K.S.Dadwal,Addl.A.G,Punjab,for the respondents. Rakesh Kumar Jain, J: This order will dispose of two writ petitions i.e. C.W.P.No. 16786 and 19118 of 2007, wherein similar prayers have been made by C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -2- the petitioners for the issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to consider and appoint them as Science Masters against one of the vacant posts on account of the fact that some candidates have been selected twice and one female candidate has been wrongly shown at serial No.2 of the merit list of the male candidates as the petitioners are the next available candidates in the merit list. The facts have been taken from C.W.P.No.16786 of 2007. On June 12,2006, the Subordinate Services Selection Board (for short, 'the Board'), arrayed as respondent No.3 in the above writ petitions advertised various categories of posts including 300 posts of Science Masters/Mistresses, out of which 150 posts were kept reserved for male and 150 posts were kept reserved for female candidates. The basic educational/ professional qualification was provided as B.Sc with B.Ed with any of the two of the four subjects in B.Sc, namely Physics, Chemistry, Botany and Geology. In the month of July,2006, the Board issued a corrigendum in 'The Tribune' that number of posts of Science Masters/ Mistress should be read as 700 instead of 500 and the candidates could apply for those posts up to August 31,2006. Out of 700 posts of Science Masters/Mistresses,348 posts were belonging to the General Category and 352 were kept for reserved categories. Out of 348 Candidates of General Category, 174 posts were kept for male and 174 for female candidates. The petitioners applied for the post of Science Master in response to the advertisement. It was clearly mentioned in the corrigendum C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -3- that the candidates who had already applied in response to the earlier advertisement dated June 12,2006, need not to apply again as they shall automatically be considered for the 700 posts of Masters/Mistresses. But inspite of this clear stipulation, some of the candidates applied twice in respect of the earlier advertisement dated June 12,2006 as well as in respect to the corrigendum. The criteria for selection was on the basis of marks obtained by the candidates in the basic educational/professional qualification as there was neither any written test or interview. On October 24,2006, the Board issued a public notice requiring the candidates to personally appear in its office on various dates for the verification of their original certificates. So far as the posts of Science Masters/ Mistresses are concerned, the candidates from General Category having marks up to 134.44% were required to appear before respondent No.3 on 2/3.11.2006 for the verification of their original certificates. On December 04,2006, result was declared of the selected candidates in ' The Tribune' . Though, as per corrigendum, there were 174 posts of male candidates from General Category, yet result of only 160 was declared with the last selected candidate , namely Shali Bhadin Jain, who secured 136.62% marks. Appointment letters were also issued to the selected candidates in the end of December,2006. According to the petitioners, the Board issued another list of few candidates and sent to respondent No.2 for issuing them appointments as Science Masters/Mistresses from General Category as well as from reserved category of male candidates. The petitioner immediately applied C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -4- to the Board through his father under Right to Information Act, asking them to supply merit list of the candidates selected for the posts of Science Masters, General Category male. On September 18,2007, the Board supplied a complete list of 160 candidates who were initially selected and the subsequent list containing the names of 15 candidates who have been selected as Science Masters from General Category . The petitioners found names of seven candidates mentioned twice in the merit list as they had submitted their applications twice in response to the advertisement dated June 12,2006 and to the corrigendum, but respondent No.3 did not care to notice the mistake even at the time of verification of the certificates. In this manner, selection and appointments have been given to 7 candidates twice taking away legitimate right of next candidates for their selection and appointment. The petitioners have agitated in the aforesaid writ petitions that as the selected candidates had obtained 135.94 marks whereas the petitioner Varinder Pal Singh Sidhu of C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007,secured 135.79 marks i.e. only .15 marks less than the last selected candidate and the petitioner Vikramjeet Singh of C.W.P.No.19118 of 2007 secured 135.870 marks i.e. though a difference of 0.07 marks from the last selected candidate,though seven candidates have been erroneously selected and appointed twice. In this way, the petitioners have claimed that as they were the next candidates from the last selected candidates,cannot be made to suffer on account of mistake on the part of respondent No.3. Had C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -5- the seven candidates, who have been wrongly shown twice in the merit were shown once only , and the name of one female candidate, who has been wrongly mentioned in the merit list of male candidates is not so mentioned, the names of the petitioners would have definitely been included in the merit list. It is further the case of the petitioner that after obtaining information from the office of respondent No.3, the petitioners represented to respondent No. 1 on September 22,2007 and October 05,2007 requesting them to remove the mistake and grant legitimate right of the petitioners. On the representation of the petitioners, respondent No.2. issued a memo to the Board asking it to consider the said representation and take appropriate action on the same,but according to the petitioners, nothing has been done and thus, the petitioners were forced to knock the door of this Court by way of filing the said writ petitions Notice of motion was issued to the respondents. Reply has been filed on behalf of respondent No.3.. In their preliminary submissions, all the averments made by the petitioners have been admitted. Para 2 of the preliminary submission is, therefore, reproduced as under:- “That according to petitioner, 7 candidates of General Category (Male) have been selected twice in the same list by the answering respondent No.3/Deponent. He has pleaded that if these 7 candidates are selected against one post, then these seven posts will automatically fall vacant and accordingly 7 more candidates appearing in the merit list below to the present selection can be accommodated and he is one of them. In this connection, it is submitted that it is a fact that C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -6- seven General Male Category candidates have been selected twice in the same list of General Category Male. All this has happened due to double applications submitted by the candidates. It is submitted that there is no merit/waiting list duly approved by the competent authority i.e. respondent No.3. Moreover, at present, the Subordinate Services Selection Board, Punjab, is dissolved and not in existence”. Besides, the above admission, we have also perused the record pertaining to this case and found that following candidates were selected and appointed twice:- _____________________________________________________________ Sr.No. Application No. Name/Father's _____________________________________________________________ 47. 88703 Deepak Sharma S/o Surinder Pal 48 82724 Deepak Sharma S/o Surinder Sharma 59. 83166 Arvind Kumar S/o Kishan Chand. 60. 88891 Arvind Kumar S/o Kishan Chand 63. 82684 Asnu Gupta S/o Chander Kant 64. 88647 Asnu Gupta S/o Chander Kant 76. 83178 Guran Ditta Malhotra S/o Ramesh Kumar 78. 89104 Guran Ditta Malhotra S/o Ramesh Kumar 97. 84223 (BC)Jaswinder Singh S/o Nirmal Singh 98. 89630 (BC) Jaswinder Singh S/o Nirmal Singh 99. 84171 (BC)Jobinder Singh S/o Jarnail Singh 100. 89397 (BC) Jobinder Singh S/o Jarnail Singh 101. 83225 Gurdeep Kumar S/o Revati Singh C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -7- 102. 89109 Gurdeep Kaur S/o Revati Singh We have heard Sh.R.K.Chopra, learned Senior Counsel for the petitioners, Sh. K.S.Dadwal, learned Addl.A.G.Punjab, for the respondents and with their assistance have gone through the file. It is the case where the relevant facts have been admitted by the respondents that the last selected candidate had secured 135.94% and that Petitioner Varinder Pal Singh had secured 135.79% marks with a difference of only 0.15% marks and petitioner Vikramjeet Singh had secured 135.870 marks with a difference of 0.070 marks. It is also the admitted position that the aforesaid seven selected candidates have been selected twice due to error on the part of respondent No.3 because of double applications submitted by them. Therefore, the petitioners deserve to be considered as per their merits, and are entitled to be appointed as Science Masters against those seven posts which will fall vacant after deletion of the names of seven selected candidates selected twice. In our opinion, it is not a case of waiting list,but is a case of error on the part of recruitment agency i.e. respondent No.3 Board for which eligible candidates cannot be denied their legitimate right of consideration for appointment. We would have appreciated if the Board itself had corrected the error and considered the petitioners for selection and appointment, but respondent No.3 had contested the litigation on the ground that the Board does not exist having been dissolved, therefore, we direct respondent No.1. to consider the candidatures of the petitioners against those seven posts which will fall vacant which having been filled C.W.P.No. 16786 of 2007 -8- twice erroneously, and if found meritorious as per their respective merits, they be given appointments within a period of three months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order. Both the petitions are, thus, disposed of in the above terms, without order as to costs. (Rakesh Kumar Jain) Judge Feb 06,2008 ( Mehtab S.Gill ) RR Judge