MAJABUTSINH C GOHIL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE challenge in this petition preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is to the rejection of the candidature of the petitioner by respondent No.2 " Gujarat Public Service Commission (GPSC), on the ground that the petitioner does not possess the requisite qualifications for the post of Lecturer in the discipline of Mechanical Engineering. It is, interalia, prayed that the decision of the GPSC rejecting the candidature of the petitioner on the ground that he has not scored 75 percentile in the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), be quashed and set aside and the petitioner be declared as eligible to be considered for appointment to the post of Lecturer, Class-II, in the Government Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics in the State of Gujarat.

(2.) THE relevant factual background is that the GPSC published Advertisement No.186 dated 16.02.2010, calling for applications from eligible candidates to fill up the posts of Lecturers in Government Engineering Colleges and Polytechnics in the State of Gujarat. THE petitioner, who was appointed as lecturer (Mechanical Engineering) on ad hoc basis vide order dated 28.01.2009, applied pursuant to the same. Earlier, the petitioner, along with others, had filed a petition, being Special Civil Application No.4651 of 2010, seeking a direction that his services be not terminated. This was done in view of the fact that the appointment of the petitioner was for a term of 11 months, or till he is replaced by a regularly selected candidate by the GPSC. THE said petition was rejected vide order dated 19.04.2010, of the learned Single Judge. THE appeal, being Letters Patent Appeal No.991 of 2010, as filed by the petitioner and others, was disposed of on 30.04.3020, on a statement made by the learned Assistant Government Pleader, that the services of the appellants would not be terminated till the regular process of recruitment for filling up the posts of Lecturers is completed and regularly selected candidates are available for appointment. In this scenario, the petitioner applied pursuant to the above-mentioned advertisement published by the GPSC. THE requisite qualification and eligibility criteria for the post of Lecturer in the discipline of Mechanical Engineering, as stated in the advertisement, is that the candidate should possess a First Class Master's Degree in the appropriate branch of Engineering/ Technology or, alternatively, he should possess a First Class Bachelor's Degree in the appropriate branch of Engineering/ Technology with a valid GATE score of 75 percentile. Admittedly, the petitioner does not hold a 1st Class Master's Degree in Engineering (ME). THE case of the petitioner is that, though he has appeared in the GATE examination, the Scorecard does not mention the percentile score as this was not calculated by the concerned Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the GATE 2010 examination, though the percentile score had been calculated in the previous year, 2009. According to the petitioner, as the percentile marks have not been provided in GATE 2010, it could not have been calculated from the details available in GATE 2010 by the GPSC, therefore, it cannot be said that the petitioner has not scored 75 percentile, and is ineligible, therefore, his candidature cannot be rejected on this ground. Hence, the petition.

(3.) IT is emphatically urged by the learned advocate for the petitioner that when the IIT (Guwahati) has informed the GPSC by letter dated 27.04.2010 that the percentile score cannot be calculated from the details provided in the Scorecard of GATE 2010, then the calculation done by GPSC cannot be considered to be correct. IT is further elaborated that for the purpose of calculating the percentile score, the complete data with regard to the total number of candidates who have appeared in the GATE as well as total number of candidates who have secured lesser marks than the concerned candidate is a sine qua non. As this data is only available with the GPSC, it is not possible to calculate the percentile score and any calculation made in the absence of the complete data would result in injustice being caused to the concerned candidates, such as the petitioner.