Laxman Singh Vs. State of Rajasthan and ors. - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
constitution of india, 1950 - article 226--writ--denial of appointment to the petitioner as physical training instructor gr. iii--name of petitioner deleted from amended select list by giving only 5 bonus marks for certificate of proficiency for inter university tournament--held, in view of judgment of division bench in special appeal no. 261/1997 dated 4.8.1997, inter university tournament is considered equivalent to national level tournament--consequently petitioner is entitled to 15 bonus marks--impugned order publishing amended select list to the extent it relates to petitioner is illegal and inoperative hence liable to be quashed--respondent directed to appoint petitioner with all consequential benefits from the date the persons listed below him were appointed.;writ petition allowed - sunil kumar garg, j.1. this writ petition under article 226 of the constitution of india has been filed by the petitioner on 31.3.1998 against the respondents with the prayer that by an appropriate writ, order or direction, the order dated 23rd march, 1998 (annex.2) in so far as it has deleted the name of the petitioner form the select list dated 10th march, 1998 (annex.1) be declared illegal and be quashed and the order dated 10th march, 1998 (annex.1) qua the petitioner be ordered to be restored with all consequential benefits to the petitioner.2. the case of the petitioner as put forward by him in this writ petition is as follows:-the petitioner obtained b.sc. degree in agriculture from mahrishi dayanand saraswati university, ajmer. in addition to the above, the petitioner has following other qualifications:-a. secondary school examination, 1982b. higher secondary examination, 1983.c. bachelor of physical education (nagpur university), 1995.d. certificate of 27th dist. level sports competition.e. certificate of sport (university of ajmer).f. certificate of proficiency (inter university kho-kho tournament) issued by the university of jodhpur (annex.5).g.certifica te of n.c.c. 'a' part ih. certificate of n.c.c. 'a' part iii. certificate of scouts'3. it was submitted by the petitioner that vacancies of physical training instructor gr. iii were advertised by the respondents for academic session 1997-98. the petitioner being eligible applied to the respondent no. 3 district education officer (secondary), jaisalmer for selection to the post of physical training instructor gr. iii.the respondent no. 3 district education officer (secondary), jaisalmer issued a select list, which initially did not include the name of the petitioner, but subsequently, select list was modified on 10th march, 1998 including the name of the petitioner at serial no. 4 (6b). a copy of the order dated 10th march, 1998 is marked as annex.1.while the petitioner was waiting for appointment, another impugned order dated 23rd march, 1998 was issued by the respondent no. 3 district education officer (secondary), jaisalmer deleting the name of the petitioner from serial no. 4 (6b) from the select list (annex.1). a copy of the said order dated 23.3.1998 is marked as annex.2.on the basis of the modified select list, appointment orders were issued by the respondents no. 3 and 4 on 24.3.1998 and 29.3.1998 respectively, copies whereof are marked as annex.3. thus, by issuing these appointment orders, the petitioner was deprived of appointment on the post of physical training instructor gr. iii.4. the further case of the petitioner is that on enquiry, he came to know that his name was deleted on the ground that the respondent no. 3 district education officer (secondary), jaisalmer had not added the bonus marks for possessing sports certificate of participation in national level inter university tournament.the further case of the petitioner is that vide order dated 21st jan. 1998 (annex.4), the director, secondary education, rajasthan, bikaner has prescribed awarded of marks for sports activities and as per the said order annex.4 dated 21.1.1998, a candidate gets 5, 10 and 15 marks on participation in district level, state level and national level tournament respectively.the further case of the petitioner is that he has got a certificate of proficiency (inter-university kho-kho tournament) for the year 1989-90 from the university ofjodhpur and they copy of the said certificate is marked as annex.5 and the said tournament should be adjudged as tournament of national level and not of district level and, therefore, he should have been awarded 15 bonus marks in place of 5 bonus marks.the further case of the petitioner is that in respect of getting 15 bonus marks, he also filed earlier a writ petition before this court being s.b. civil writ petition no. 3846/96 and the said writ petition was allowed by this court vide order dated 14.2.1997, copy of which is marked as annex.6 and the special appeal preferred against the said order annex.6 by the state of rajasthan was dismissed by the division bench of this court through judgment dated 4.8.1997, copy of which is marked as annex.7.the further case of the petitioner is that in that writ petition being no. 3846/96, it was averred by the petitioner that on the basis of the national level inter university tournament certificate possessed by him, he was entitled to get 15 bounds marks and in that writ petition, no objection was taken by the respondents, and therefore, in the present case also, the respondents cannot take that objection and the petitioner is also entitled to 15 bonus marks and in case. 15 bounds marks are given to the petitioner, the seniority list published through order annex.1 dated 10.3.1998 would be restored and the petitioner would be placed at serial no. 4 (6b) and consequently, he would be entitled to appointment on the post of physical training instructor gr. iii. hence, this writ petition with the prayers and stated above.a reply to the writ petition was filed by the respondents and the case of the respondents is that as per annex.5, the petitioner participated in the inter university kho-kho tournament in the year 1989-90, therefore, he is entitled for bounds marks under circulars dated 17.1.1998 (annex.r/1) and 21.1.1998 (annex.4) which were issued in compliance of the judgment delivered by this court in umesh jangid v. state (1), (decided on 10.1.1997). it was further submitted by the respondents that as per circular annex.4 dated 21.1.1998, the petitioner was entitled to 5 bounds marks as he has played inter university tournament which is of district level tournament. it was further submitted by the respondents that initially the petitioner was wrongly given 15 bounds marks and later on that mistake was corrected through order annex.2 dated 23.3.1998. thus, the petitioner is not entitled to any relief and this writ petition he dismissed.5. i have heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned counsel appearing for the respondents and gone through the materials available on record.6. the pertinent question for consideration is whether the petitioner is entitled to get 15 bonus marks on the basis of the certificate annex.5 or not.7. the circular dated 17.1.1998 (annex.r/1) issued by the director, secondary education, rajasthan, bikaner on which reliance has been placed by the respondents, allocates bonus marks in the following manner: -1. district level 52. state level 103. national level 158. the order annex.4 dated 21.1.1998 issued by director, secondary education, rajasthan, bikaner allocates the bonus marks in the following manner:-1. district level 52. state level 103. national level 15 as per order annex.4, the level was to be determined in the following manner:- 1. district level (1) university inter-faculties tournaments. (2) inter-college zonal sports tournaments. 2. state level university zonal sports tournaments. 3. national (1) university inter zone tournaments (2) all india inter university tournaments.9. the case of the petitioner is that after perusing both orders dated 17.1.1998 (annex.r/1) and 21.1.1998 (annex.4), his case comes in the third category i.e. national level, which gives 15 bonus marks while the case of the respondents is that the case of the petitioner is covered by the first category i.e. district level as district level includes inter university tournaments.10. before appreciating the above contentions of both the parties, the division bench judgment of this court dated 4.8.1997 passed in d.b. civil special appeal no. 261 of 1997 has to be seen where at page 9 in para 17 of that judgment, this court observed that the education department itself, while granting admission to the physical training course, has recognized the inter-university tournaments as equivalent to national level tournaments and rule 11 of the admission rules, which gives recognition to the various tournaments was also quoted in that judgment and the same is also quotes here:-1. national level tournament(a) inter zone university/inter university tournaments.national level school tournaments organized by sgfi.(c) federal national level tournaments organized by national federation.state level tournaments:-(a) inter-college tournaments.(b) state level school tournaments.(c) state level federal tournaments organized by state federation.3. district level tournaments:-(a) university inter-faculties tournaments.(b) district school level tournaments (organised by the district education officer).(c) federal district level tournaments (organised by the district sports federation).11. thus, the above division bench judgment of this court makes the position very much clear by holding that the inter university tournaments are equivalent to national level tournaments.12. when this being the position, the case of the petitioner comes in the third category i.e. national level which gives 15 bonus marks and thus, the petitioner is entitled to 15 bonus marks.13. apart from this, there is one more aspect which goes in favour of the petitioner and the same is that a rejoinder was also filed by the petitioner and alongwith that rejoinder, annex.8 a badge issued to the petitioner was also produced which shows 'inter university south west zone kho kho tournament, 1989-90' meaning thereby that tournament was played at national level covering the area of south west zone of india. this also leads to the conclusion that the certificate annex.5 issued be the university of jodhpur in favour of the petitioner was a certificate of national level.14. thus, it is held that annex.5 certificate of proficiency (inter university kho-kho tournament) for the year 1989-90 issued by the university of jodhpur in favour of the petitioner is equivalent to national level tournament and therefore, on the basis of certificate annex.5, as per the orders annex.r/1 dated 17.1.1998 and 21.1.1998 (annex.4) the petitioner is entitled to get 15 bonus marks.15. since the petitioner is entitled to 15 bonus marks, therefore, the initial order dated 10.3.1998 (annex.1) would be valid and the petitioner would be placed at serial no. 4 (6b) and thus, he would be entitled to get appointment to the post of physical training instructor gr.iii earlier to person mentioned below him in the order annex.1 dated 10.3.1998 and consequently, the order dated 23.3.1998 (annex.2) publishing amended select list would be declared invalid and would be inoperative so far as it relates to the petitioner.in the result, this writ petition filed by the petitioner is allowed and the order annex.2 dated 23.3.1998 publishing amended select list so far as it relates to the petitioner is declared illegal and quashed and the order dated 10th march, 1998 (annex.1) so far as it relates to the petitioner is restored and the respondents are directed to give appointment to the petitioner on the post of physical training instructor gr.iii immediately from the date when persons below him in the select list published through annex.1 dated 10.3.1998 were given appointments, which all consequential benefits. no order as to costs.