MAMTA DEVI Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By means of aforesaid writ petitions, filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners are seeking writ in the nature of certiorari for quashing of the impugned termination orders dated 01.09.2018 passed by respondent no. 4

(2.) Since, controversy involved in both the petitions is similar; therefore, same are being decided by common judgment for the sake of brevity.

(3.) Facts, leading to filing of the present petitions, are that petitioners are permanent resident of Village Sillabaman Gaon (Tok Jhatgarh) P.O. Agustyamuni, Block Agustyamuni, District Rudraprayag; Respondent no. 3 issued an advertisement dated 15.12.2011, inviting applications for the post of Aanganbari Karyakarti and Aanganbari Sahayika in District Rudraprayag along with other Aanganbari Centers under Child Development Project; post of Aangabari Karyakarti in Jutai, Nagar Palika Ward No. 4 Belri Sangam Bazar Pratham, Gadmil, Chapad, Gadnu and Jhatgarh were for general category. Petitioners, being candidate of General category, applied for the post of Aanganbari Karyakarti and Aanganbari Sahayika respectively, they were declared successful and appointed on the said posts. Respondent no. 5, namely, Rajkumari Devi (in both petitions) participated in the selection process but could not be selected due to her low merit. She approached to this Court challenging the selection process by filing WPSS No. 1414 of 2013, the writ petition was disposed of by order dated 19.03.2018 with the direction to the competent authority to decide her representation/objection by detailed and speaking order. Pursuant to order dated 19.03.2018 of this Court, respondent no. 3 issued a show cause notice to the petitioners why their appointment may not be cancelled, as the population of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes in the concerned village is more than 40% and aforesaid posts should have been reserved for scheduled caste category candidate, and, if they wish to file their objections, they may file their objections within 30 days from the receipt of the show cause notice. The petitioners filed their reply to the show cause notice but no decision was taken by the respondents then petitioner Mamta Devi was constrained to file WPSS No. 1926 of 2018. This Court, vide order dated 28.6.2018 disposed of the writ petition with liberty to the petitioners to make representation before the competent authority and till decision is taken, petitioners shall be permitted to continue on the post on which they were appointed. On receipt of representation, respondent no. 3 has considered that scheduled caste population in Village Sillabaman Gaon is about 52.26% and village Jhatgarh comes under Sillbaman Gaon, and has held that Jhatgarh Village has wrongly been shown under general category and the petitioner has wrongly been given appointment on the respective posts of Aanganbari Karyakatri and Aanganbari Sahayika. By impugned order dated 01.09.2018, services of the petitioners were terminated on this count alone.