TAPAN BHATTACHARYA Vs. UNION OF INDIA & ANR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, who is claiming to be a Social Activist, Professor, Scholar and also an Advocate, has raised issue of charge of fees from aspirants of recruitment and also discrimination in charging such fees for filing the application for recruitment. He urged that this is exploitation and prayed that Union of India be directed to issue directions to all the States Governments not to charge any fees for application filed in pursuance of any advertisement issued for the purpose of recruitment by the State Government or its instrumentalities. He also prayed for refund of such fees charged by Central or the State Governments or its instrumentalities. It is further prayed to direct the respondents to complete the recruitment within six months.

(2.) It is the statement of the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioner that the Respondents are welfare State and they are duty bound to provide employment to the youths, but instead of discharging their obligation, the States have made this a source of generating income. Further, according to the petitioner, there is no equality or parity and no common or unanimous guideline or instruction for determining the fees for any such examination. In most of the cases, the States or its instrumentalities are charging Rs. 500 to 1,000/- per applicant from the poor parents. Recently, the State had published an advertisement to fill apx. 10,000/- posts of Patwari and more than 10 lacs jobless youths applied for the same. 10,00,000 X 500 comes to the tune of Rs. 50 Crore, which the government is earning from unblessed youths. Thus, the State is exploiting helpless youths by charging arbitrary and excessive fees for entrance examination to various posts. The fees should be commensurate to the services provided by the authorities or both the respondents. This is in violation of Article 14, 16, 19(1)(g) and 21 of the Constitution. The Constitution gives the right to every citizen, the right to livelihood, the equality of opportunity in matters of public employment etc. Considering the aforesaid, recently Ministry of Railway has announced that out of rupees 500 hundreds charged from the aspirants, Rs. 400/- shall be refunded to the applicants.

(3.) It is further submitted that existing recruitment process takes six month to 1 year for final selection and issuance of appointment letter to a candidate; which results in depression and at times they commit suicide. Therefore, as prayed, the respondent should be directed to complete the process of recruitment within a period of 6 months.