BHUPENDRA SINGH Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The short question involved in this writ appeal is, whether the status of the appellant as an Ex-serviceman is lost or watered down, once he gets an appointment to any category of civil post of the State by virtue of the Chhattisgarh Ex-Servicemen (Reservation of Vacancies in the State Civil Services and Posts Class III and Class IV) Rules, 1985 (for short, the Rules of 1985) virtually preventing him from making any application for a better or such other appropriate post by virtue of his qualification?

(2.) The aforesaid question of law arises in the following factual backdrop: -

(3.) The appellant was appointed in the year 1999 on the post of Rank Naik in the Indian Army. He retired from the said post on 30/9/2015. Thereafter, he applied for the post of Revenue Inspector pursuant to the advertisement issued by the Commissioner, Land Records, Raipur for the post of Revenue Inspector and ultimately, by order dtd. 5/2/2016, he was appointed on the said post of Revenue Inspector against the post reserved for Ex-serviceman. The Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission issued advertisement for State Service Examination in which the appellant again applied for the post of Tahsildar and appeared in the preliminary examination on 17/2/2019 and after clearance of the preliminary examination, he also appeared in the mains examination on 23/7/2019 which also he cleared and he was called for document verification and interview. On 14/1/2020, the appellant appeared for document verification, but on 15/1/2020, at the time of interview, he was declared ineligible to participate in the process of interview for the reason that he is Ex-serviceman candidate and he has already been appointed on the post of Revenue Inspector against Ex-serviceman quota, therefore, he does not fall in the category of Ex-serviceman which he challenged by way of writ petition being W.P.(S) No.722/2020. The learned Single Judge by its impugned order dtd. 10/2/2020 dismissed the writ petition holding that once the benefit of reservation has been taken by the petitioner / appellant herein in the Ex-serviceman category having availed the benefit of reservation once, he cannot take the benefit of reservation for the second time it being a special privilege. This impugned order is sought to be challenged by this writ appeal.