MAHESH G. BHALKE Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by dismissal of O.A. No.289 of 2020 by an order dated October 1, 2020 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Mumbai Bench, Mumbai, the original applicants before such tribunal have presented this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The respondents issued a recruitment notice dated May 27, 2020. Applications were invited within June 15, 2020 from eligible employees for filling up, inter alia, the post of Chargeman (Technical) in different Trade/Discipline as mentioned therein through a Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (hereafter the "LDCE", for short). The eligibility criteria as stipulated therein, inter alia, required an aspiring candidate to possess a three years' diploma or equivalent qualification certificate in the respective field, duly affiliated by All India Council of Technical Education. The recruitment notice also contained the following stipulation:

(3.) The petitioners before this Court, being employees under the respondents, intended to participate in the recruitment process. Incidentally, all the petitioners claim to have taken admission in courses offering diploma in Mechanical/Civil Engineering which were expected to be complete by April/May 2020 and the pass certificates issued by June 2020 to those who are successful in clearing the examinations. However, amid the pandemic, the final examinations have been been deferred from time to time and the petitioners are yet to write the final examinations. Expressing their difficulty, the petitioners had approached the respondents with a representation praying that pending conduct of the final year examinations, in which they were supposed to appear, they ought to be provisionally allowed to appear in the LDCE. Such prayer was made in the light of relaxation granted in respect of employees who had taken the final year examinations but had not received the pass certificates. The representation was rejected. The respondents then published a notice dated September 23, 2020, notifying the names of eligible candidates who could appear in the LDCE, due to commence from October 5, 2020. The petitioners were excluded because of their apparent ineligibility.