The Director Of Horticulture vs Pravat Kumar Dash

Respondents are directed to consider the case of the applicants for their appointment against the existing vacant posts of Gardener, as has been done in the case of similarly placed trained candidates pursuant to the order of the Hon’ble High Court, within a period of three months from the date of receipt of copy of this order. Since the applicants have been fighting for their right for the last more than 15 years, respondents are directed to stick to the dead line fixed by this Tribunal.”

3) Aggrieved against the said order, the State and the Director of Horticulture, Odisha filed writ petitions before the High Court. The High Court dismissed the writ petitions holding that the applicants had undergone training after being selected and sponsored by the Government. It is also held that since the posts of Gardener are lying vacant, there is no reason why the State should not consider the applicants against such vacancies.

4) The facts leading to the present appeals are that Agriculture and Cooperation Department of Odisha approved ten months course for pre-service training of Gardeners. The Gardeners were to be recruited through an open advertisement and to undergo ten months training in the School of Horticulture, Odisha. All the candidates who were trained up to the year 1990 were absorbed. It was on April 16, 1998, the Director of Horticulture decided to impart pre-service Gardener’s Training in the 10 Departmental farms during the year 1998-1999. The candidates were to be selected as per the guidelines in terms of the selection procedure Page 2 of 10 circulated. The procedure for selecting candidates in all the 30 districts was to be made by a committee chaired by Deputy Director of Horticulture in each range. One of the conditions in the procedure circulated was as under:

11) On March 7, 2012, the State decided to abolish the post of Gardener. On May 9, 2012, it was decided that no further recruitment will be made in the cadre of Gardener and the post would stand abolished when the incumbent retires or gets promoted. There were certain directions to the State Government to consider the appointments in other Original Applications. The claim of the applicants for appointment as Gardener was rejected on various dates. Such termination orders were challenged in nine separate applications before the Odisha Administrative Tribunal including OA No. 1510 of 2012 which was allowed on June 27, 2014 and the writ petitions filed by the State stand dismissed vide order dated December 22, 2017. This order is impugned in the present appeal.

cum-merit.

19) The services of six persons who were appointed were ordered to be terminated on December 10, 1999 but even if their termination was set aside on April 24, 2001, it will not confer any right on the Page 9 of 10 basis of equity in favour of the other candidates. There cannot be any parity in the illegality. Reference will be made to Chandigarh Administration & Anr. v. Jagjit Singh & Anr.1 and Kulwinder Pal Singh & Anr. v. State of Punjab & Ors.2

20) In view of the above, we find that the order of the Odisha Adminis-

trative Tribunal, as affirmed by the High Court, directing the State to appoint the applicants as Gardeners is beyond their jurisdiction vested in the High Court as there cannot be any direction for mak- ing appointment to the public post in such a manner. Conse- quently, the appeals are allowed. The orders passed by the High Court and the Tribunal are set aside and the OAs filed by the re- spondents are dismissed.

AUGUST 09, 2019.