CHAITALI JITENDRA KATARIYA Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) It has been 37 long years since enactment of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 and establishment of Administrative Tribunals under Article 323A and 323B of the Constitution of India for adjudication of disputes in respect of recruitment and conditions of service of persons appointed to public services and posts in connection with the affairs of the Union or of the State. However, despite availability of remedy of seeking adjudication in respect of service matters before the Administrative Tribunals, several writ petitions still continue to be directly filed before this Court under specious plea that mere existence of alternate remedy is not a bar for exercise of writ jurisdiction by us under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. We have before us two such petitions filed by the candidates/petitioners, who are seeking recruitment to the post of Talathi in the Revenue and Forest Department of the Government of Maharashtra.

(2.) The petitioners in both the petitions have participated in the selection process initiated by the District Collector, Ahmednagar and Dhule for recruitment on the post of Talathi. The petitioners are essentially aggrieved by the action of the State Government in publishing notification dtd. 15/6/2021 as well as issuing Government Resolution dtd. 31/5/2021 allowing candidates belonging to Socially and Educationally Backward Category (SEBC) to change the reservation category to Economically Weaker Sec. (EWS) Category thereby impinging upon their chances of being selected and appointed on the post of Talathi.

(3.) There is no dispute that the grievance sought to be redressed before us in the present petition is a service matter within the meaning of Sec. 14 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 (in short 'Act of 1985'). There is also no dispute that the petitioners have the remedy of filing applications under Sec. 19 of the Act of 1985 before Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, which has jurisdiction to decide it.