RABINDRA NATH SAREN Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The grievance of the writ petitioner in this proceeding is over his exclusion from the final list published by the State Government permitting him to undergo the course of MS in orthopaedics from in-service category that is from among the Medical Officers already in service of the State Government. This category of examinees or students are known as Trainee Reserve candidates. The petitioner was initially selected for pursuing the course from Nil Ratan Sarkar Medical College. At the time when the petitioner applied for admission, he was an employee of the State Government, being a Medical Officer under the West Bengal Health Services. He belong to a Scheduled Tribe and had obtained his degree of Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery under the University of Calcutta in the year 2003 and completed his internship in the year 2005. He was initially appointed in the cadre of the West Bengal Health Services temporarily on a purely ad-hoc basis for a period of six months. His appointment was notified by a memorandum issued on 25th September 2006 by the appropriate authority of the State Government. Thereafter by another memorandum dated 26th April 2007, his service was extended by a further period of six months. His ad-hoc appointment continued till 17th March 2008 and with effect from 18th March 2008 he was permanently appointed as a Medical Officer under the same service. His initial appointment on ad-hoc basis was made subject to the following condition as stipulated in Clause 3 of the notification dated 25th September 2006:

(2.) To pursue the MS course as an in-service candidate, the petitioner had to be sponsored by the concerned department of the State Government and the petitioner had to fill up a proforma prescribed by the authorities. The petitioner had to give details of his educational qualification and particulars of service rendered by him. It appears that for this purpose the routine procedure had been followed and the Assistant Chief Medical Officer of Health of the concerned district, being Paschim Medinipur where the petitioner was serving had forwarded the same to the Chief Medical Officer of Health of the same district, who also had endorsed the same. The Director of Medical Education/Director of Health Services, Government of West Bengal by a memorandum dated 29th March, 2010 endorsed his consent in permitting the petitioner to appear in the entrance examination as Government Sponsored candidate and recorded that he would be eligible for counseling if selected for the course in question as per "existing TR Rules 2008". This was in reference to the West Bengal Medical. Education Service, the West Bengal Health Service and the West Bengal Public Health-cum-Administrative Service (Placement on Trainee Reserve) Rules, 2008 which was framed by the State Government in exercise of power under section 21 of the West Bengal Health Services Act, 1990. The relevant provision in this regard is contained in paragraph 3 of the said Rules, which stipulates;

(3.) The petitioner had appeared in the entrance test held on 24 January 2010. As the petitioner was working as a Medical Officer at that point of time, his name had to be sponsored as a Government sponsored candidate. In his bio-data furnished in the prescribed form, he disclosed his length of service as three years and five months which included the one year period he served in ad-hoc capacity. Against the column "Date of Joining in Service" he disclosed "ad hoc" on 4th October 2006 and as "PSC on 18 March 2008. Computing his service in these two categories, he had described his total length of service as three years and five months.