D RAMABRAHMAM Vs. CHAIRMAN CENTRAL RECRUITMENT BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Central Recruitment Board (State Bank Group) has issued an advertisement calling for applications from the eligible candidates for the post of Assistant General Manager (Law). The qualifications prescribed for the said post are that the applicant should be a candidate having Post Graduate Degree in Law and 15 years standing as an Advocate. The petitioner has 15 years standing at the Bar but he is having only LL.B degree. In this Writ Petition, the petitioner seeks a declaration that the action of the respondents in prescribing Post-Graduate degree in Law for the post of Assistant General Manager (Law) is arbitrary, unreasonable and violative of Article 14 of the constitution.

(2.) The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner while reiterating the same ground taken by the petitioner in the pleading would point out that in other nationalized Banks the qualifications prescribed by the Managements of those Banks only require that a candidate who seeks appointment to the post of Assistant General Manager (Law) should possess an under-graduate degree in Law and there is no justification for the 2nd respondent-State Bank of Hyderabad to prescribe Master degree in Law as a condition precedent for applying to the post of Assistant General Manager (Law).

(3.) This argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner is not at all acceptable to the Court. The Supreme Court in J.Ranga Swamy v. Government of A.P. (1) AIR 1990 SC 535 held that the relevancy and suitability of the qualifications prescribed by an employer for different posts are not justiciable issues and it is not for the Courts to consider the relevancy and suitability and assess the same. The Apex Court further held that if there is any grievance in that regard, the appropriate authorities might be moved for review of the prescribed qualifications. In that view of the matter, the issue brought before the Court cannot be an issue which can be reviewed within the manageable rational standards because the prescription of qualifications for any post in the out-come of realisation on the part of the Management to fulfil its needs and achieved certain managerial goals. Looking from another angle also, I do not find any merit in the Writ Petition because the post now advertised i. e., the Assistant General Manager (Law) is an important post in the echelon of the administration of the Bank and prescription of Post Graduate Degree in Law for such a post cannot be said to be whimscical, irrational or arbitrary and violative of Article 14 of the Constitution.