MEENABEN NANJIBHAI CHAUHAN & AND OTHERS Vs. CHAIRMAN, GUJARAT STATE PRIMARY EDUCATION SELECTION COMMITTE & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL these writ petitions raise common grievance about denying benefits of reservation in the matter of public employment based on Article 16(4) and (5) of the Constitution of India that nothing in these articles shall prevent the State from making any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes which, in the opinion of the State, are not adequately represented in the services under the State, as interpreted by the Apex Court in the case of Indra Sawhney vs. Union of India, 1993 AIR(SC) 477 ), vis - -vis selection procedure undertaken by the respondents -State Authorities while operating general merit list for the posts of vidhya sahayak for the year 2011 -2012 in upper primary section under the Gujarat Primary Education Act, 1947 as amended vide the Gujarat Educational Laws (Amendment) Act, 2010, pursuant to Right to Education Act, 2009.

(2.) FOR the sake of convenience, Special Civil Application Nos. 12266 of 2011 and 12267 of 2001 are treated as 'lead matter' and, as such, the facts and other details are taken therefrom. In Special Civil Application Nos. 14674 of 2011, 15176 of 2011, 15143 of 2011 to 15169 of 2011, 15121 of 2011 to 15136 of 2011, 15106 of 2011 to 15113 of 2011, 13443 of 2011 and 14440 of 2001, Rule is issued and learned counsels appearing for respective respondents waive service of Rule. With the consent of the learned counsels for the parties, all these matters are taken for final disposal.

(3.) THE basic grievance of the petitioners and alike, who hail from the reserved category and applied pursuant to the advertisement dated 15th July 2011 for recruitment of about 13000 Vidya Sahayaks for upper primary schools, is that they are deprived of selection in the quota and category meant for reserved caste due to unjust, unreasonable, arbitrary and discriminatory policy and procedure of recruitment, which includes selection and appointment, for the post of Vidya Sahayaks by the respondent -Authorities.