KOUSIK PURKAIT Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is an unemployed graduate. His name was sponsored by the Employment Exchange as a non -trained candidate for the post of Assistant Teacher in primary school under D.P.S.C, South 24 Parganas. He is scheduled caste by birth. The caste certificate was issued by the Sub -Divisional Officer, Kakdwip, South 24 -Parganas on 28th January, 1997 certifying that the petitioner belongs to scheduled caste community. The caste certificate issued in favour of the petitioner by the Sub -Divisional Officer, Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas is annexed to the stay petition being annexure A -2. The computer generated Employment Exchange Card issued by the District Employment Exchange, Kakdwip, shows that he was registered as a scheduled caste candidate with the said State Employment Exchange. The said Employment Exchange Card is annexed to the stay petition being annexure A -3. The bio -data which was submitted by the petitioner for offering his candidature for the said post on 21st September, 2007 clearly demonstrates that he belongs to scheduled caste category. The said bio -data which was annexed to the stay petition was marked as annexure A -5. All necessary testimonials about the educational qualification of the petitioner and the caste certificate issued by the concerned authority were submitted by the petitioner to the Council. The Employment Exchange Officer, by his letter dated 4th October, 2007 requested the Chairman, South 24 - Parganas, District Primary School Council to consider him as a scheduled caste candidate in lieu of unreserved category. The said letter is appearing at page 22 of the stay petition being annexure A -4.

(2.) AFTER due consideration of the papers and/or documents submitted by the petitioner, admit card was issued by South 24 -Parganas, District Primary School Council, permitting the petitioner to appear in the selection test which was held on 20th September, 2009. Admittedly, the petitioner appeared in the said selection test. The Council ultimately considered the petitioner as a general candidate and after considering his performance in the selection test as a general candidate he was not selected for appointment for any of the vacant posts in the unreserved category as the marks which he obtained in the selection test was below the marks obtained by the last selected candidate from the unreserved category.

(3.) TO resolve the said dispute, a writ petition was filed challenging the illegal action on the part of the Council for not considering his candidature as a schedule caste candidate. The said writ petition which was registered as W.P. 4941(W) of 2010, was dismissed by a Learned Single Judge of this court with an observation that the concerned authority of the State was at liberty to take appropriate steps against the person who issued the hand -written communication letter dated 4th October, 2007 affixing an official rubber tamp thereon whereby the Chairman, South 24 Parganas, District Primary School Council was requested to treat the petitioner as scheduled caste candidate. Such observation was made by the Learned Single Judge, as the Learned Single Judge after considering the manually prepared original record of the Employment Exchange, was of the view, that the petitioner was not registered as scheduled caste candidate in the manually prepared register, maintained by the Employment Exchange. His Lordship held that electronic data base maintained by the concerned department which was produced by the petitioner cannot over ride/supersede the original manual record maintained and kept in the register by the department as there was every possibility of wrong/erroneous data being entered by the Data Entry Operator while converting such manual record into electronic format. Holding as such, the writ petition filed by the petitioner was dismissed by the Learned Single Judge as it was found that the marks obtained by him was lower than the minimum cut off marks in the said general/unreserved category candidates. The legality and/or validity of the said order is under challenge before this court in this application.